JUST a little too certain, just a little too steady, Nikolay Davydenko was just a little too good at everything for Andy Murray here last night. Absolutely no dishonour in that.

The Russian has not risen — with precious scant fanfare — to No 5 in the world without being a darned good player and thus his 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over the 18-year-old Scot in the second round of the Pacific Life Open was predictable in its way. There were flashes of Murray at his best but there is a machine-like quality about the dapper Davydenko that draws in and chews out players better than the British No 1. Murray lost in time for him to consider playing the Sunrise challenger in Florida this week, giving him more match play before the next Masters Series event, in Key Biscayne, Florida, which starts on Wednesday week.

The scenery was magnificently alluring, as the weekend’s snow had coated two thirds of the ranges. When he pulled back the curtains yesterday morning, Murray could have been looking at the Cairngorms. The priest’s sermon at the local church began with the greeting “welcome to polar bear country”.

The edge had gone from the cold by the time the match was called, but a stiff wind blew straight across an unprotected court, meaning that any degree of misjudgment off the ground would be punished, as Murray found to his initial cost. It did not help his cause that Davydenko was the personification of precision, especially with his forehand deep to the Scot’s forehand corner. He was barely missing.

Murray, on the other hand, was unable to get into any kind of discernible rhythm, as the Russian’s clean hitting took a heavy toll. Three breaks of serve in the first set and the No 5 seed appeared to be heading for a decisive victory. But Murray has endured sluggish starts many times and once Davydenko had tossed in three double faults in his first two service games of the second set, he was 3-0 down. In the midst of this, Murray had played his best point of the match, a backhand “get” lob, which Davydenko pursued, turned and struck back into play only for the Scot to cut it off with a touch volley.

The crowd, which had been strangely quiet, began to warm to the task. Murray held serve in an arduous sixth game, during which he had skimmed the top of the net with one sliced backhand and, rather than hold up his hand by means of apology — and which player really means it? — he pumped his fist. When he stumbled, chasing yet another deep ground stroke by Davydenko two games later, the Russian did not ask after his opponent ’s wellbeing — what do they expect, a bunch of flowers?

Slow courts, heavy balls, another kid who could take ferocious swings and hit a stream of winners — all the ingredients that offered Greg Rusedski food for despairing thought about the future of a sport that used to be sprinkled with variation.

Rusedski’s 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland, was a further punishing reminder that unless something is done to reverse the deadening of court surfaces and give players decently weighted tennis balls rather than the cannonballs on offer at present, we are heading towards the dreary prospect of years of baseline attrition and the consequent pain of player burnout. “I’ve been lucky, to be around for 15 years,” Rusedski said, “but I don’t expect there will be too many like me around in the future. I give them eight years at most; they can’t keep going in the current conditions.”