(CNN) -- Australian Open finalist Andy Murray suffered his second successive defeat as he was bundled out of the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Wednesday.
The British player, second seed in the absence of his injured Melbourne conqueror Novak Djokovic, lost in straight sets to Marcos Baghdatis in the Dutch hardcourt event.
The big-serving Cypriot triumphed 6-4 6-1 to take a 3-1 career advantage over the 2009 champion and earn a second-round clash with Spain's Feliciano Lopez.
"I need to think about what I need to do to be playing my best tennis by Indian Wells and Miami in March," Murray told reporters.
"I started well and then began missing a lot. You need to be very sharp in your movement on this surface."
Baghdatis, ranked 20th in the world, made a terrible start as Murray broke his service twice, but fought back to 4-4 and then won on his Scottish opponent's serve for the third time to take the set.
The 2006 Australian Open runner-up went 3-1 ahead with another break in the fourth game of the second and cruised to victory.
"He could be tired from Melbourne. When I played the final in Australia, I was in bed for a week, it's tough to come back. I took my chances today, bad luck for him," Baghdatis said.
Lopez progressed with a 6-3 6-4 win over Germany's Florian Mayer 6-3 6-4, while Russian sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny also went through by beating another Spaniard, Marcel Granollers.
Youzhny won 6-2 7-6 (8-6) to set up a meeting with Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker.
Eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the quarterfinals with a 4-6 6-4 6-2 win over fellow Frenchman Michael Llodra, the winner here in 2008.
Tsonga will next play either Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych or Russia's Dmitri Tursunov.
Fifth seed Jurgen Melzer will not join him in the last eight, as the Austrian lost 6-2 6-4 to Croatia's Marin Cilic.
Meanwhile, Australian Open women's champion Kim Clijsters was made to battle in her opening match at the Paris Open on Wednesday.
The Belgian, who will reclaim the world No. 1 ranking for the first time since 2006 if she reaches the semifinals, was taken to three sets by Germany's Kristina Barrois before winning 4-6 6-2 6-0.
The 27-year-old, who had a first-round bye, will play either Australia's Jelena Dokic or Russian Nadia Petrova in the last eight.
Fifth seed Petrova beat home hope Virginie Razzano 6-1 6-3 to clinch a clash with former world No. 4 Dokic, who won their only previous match back in 2001.
Alize Cornet's later defeat by Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson meant that for the first time, no French player made it past round one of the event.
German sixth seed Andrea Petkovic and Belgian No. 7 Yanina Wickmayer booked their places in the second round, and will meet Slovakian qualifier Kristina Kucova and Czech Klara Zakopalova respectively.
In Thailand, second seed Ana Ivanovic moved into the quarterfinals of the Pattaya Open after battling past American veteran Jill Craybas on Wednesday.
The Serbian won 4-6 6-1 7-5 to set up a meeting with Italian fifth seed Roberta Vinci, who beat China's Zhang Shuai 7-5 6-1.
Zhang's compatriot Peng Shuai had better fortunes as the sixth seed defeated Britain's Elena Baltacha 2-6 6-1 6-4 to earn a potential clash with world No. 3 Vera Zvonareva.
The Russian top seed faces Thai qualifier Nungnadda Wannasuk in her second-round match on Thursday.
