Someone should have had the wit to whisper in Andy Murray’s ear that Rafael Nadal was packing his bags and heading for the airport halfway through his second set at the Foro Italico yesterday. It might have made all the difference in the world.

A day of unremitting dismay ended with Murray’s 6-2, 7-6 defeat by Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland, although it required six match points before the baby-faced world No 24 took his place in the third round, where he will play Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain.

Those who booked a Thursday afternoon in front of the television to watch Murray take on Nadal will have been tearing their hair out last night. The British No 1 was so poor in the first set that it was testament to his character that he made a match of it in the second. Alex Corretja, the Spaniard brought in to help to develop Murray’s clay-court prowess, appeared to be growing greyer by the point.

Corretja had said yesterday morning that to succeed on clay you often had to battle the feeling that your legs were not your own. “One day you can run for everything, the next you feel so heavy and cannot move,” he said. Well, the proof of that was played out before his very eyes. Murray had one of those days when he could barely raise a jog and contrived to remain in most rallies by playing soft, feathery shots in the hope of catching Wawrinka off guard.

A dark cloud had positioned itself above Nadal the moment he arrived here with blisters on his feet and a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. Those doubts closed in on Campo Centrale when Ferrero celebrated a victory on red clay the sublime satisfaction of which he had not experienced in five years, since he won the French Open. Nadal left the BNL D’Italia Masters Series event after his first defeat on Roman soil, 7-5, 6-1, to a compatriot who yearned to remind people that he is more than a former champion scratching around the circuit.

The result may seem incomprehensible, but as Nadal reminded us later, he had repeatedly said that the constraints of this clay-court season because of the Olympic Games meant that it would be impossible for him to play at his best four weeks in a row.

“I woke at 6 in the morning after the final in Barcelona on Sunday and I could not put my right foot on the floor,” he said. “I am taking nothing away from Juan Carlos, he is a nice person and he deserved his win.

“In a Masters Series event the field is so strong, you need to give 100 per cent all the time and for sure, I couldn’t do that today. There was just no power in the legs and I was scared to put my foot down with any strength. I was happy with my attitude to play on the court and now I have to hope I can be at my best next week in Hamburg."