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Murray: Work to be done on clay

Andy Murray is yet to reach the final of a clay court event © Getty Images

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After crashing out of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday, Andy Murray admits he has plenty of work to do over the next few weeks if he is to improve on clay.

The British No. 1 put on a lacklustre display in a 6-1 6-2 loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round, and was jeered by the crowd after he exited the court.

Murray is set to lose his second spot in the world rankings to Roger Federer following the defeat, and the Scot revealed he must improve on his least favoured surface.

"I need to make sure I get good practice in, that's for sure, over the next two weeks," Murray said. "I played a lot of matches this year, obviously just not on the clay… The issue is [there are] certain things I need to iron out in my game, things I need to work on."

Murray has been to the semi-finals twice in Monaco, but the defeat to Wawrinka was his third in a row to the Swiss No. 2 on the red dirt.

"No one wants to lose matches like [today's]. But hopefully I can use it as motivation to improve because I need to do a lot of work," the US Open champion said.

"Sometimes you can squeeze through matches and not necessarily play well, [but] you don't actually see what's gone wrong because you've won the matches, so you think it's okay. Obviously I'll need to work really hard over the next sort of two weeks to get myself ready for Madrid."

Murray is yet to participate in a final on clay, and on why the Scot fails to perform on this type of court, he said: "It does take me time to feel comfortable on the surface.

"I need matches against top players to see what's going wrong and what's going right, things I need to work on to get better. Normally towards the end of the clay court season, I start to feel better with my game and I've had some good results, but at the start I have struggled a little bit."

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