Murray loses to Safin

Andy Murray's Australian Open preparations suffered a setback as he lost in straight sets to Marat Safin at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne this morning.

The Scot, winner of the Qatar Open last week, went down 6-1 6-4 in his final event before playing in the first grand slam of the year.

There were also wins for American Andy Roddick, who beat Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-0, and Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who overcame Nikolay Davydenko 6-4 4-6 6-1.