Andy Murray of Britain waves as he departs after being defeated by Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland at the US Open tennis championships in New York, Sept 5, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK - Andy Murray's US Open title defence ended with barely a whimper as he crashed to a 6-4 6-3 6-2 defeat in the quarterfinals to ninth-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka on Thursday.

The British third seed looked a shadow of the player who won Wimbledon two months ago, turning in a listless display against an opponent who sensed his weakness from the outset and went in for the kill.

Murray has not looked at his best since his triumph at the All-England Club but the manner and margin of his loss at Arthur Ashe Stadium was nonetheless a shock.

The Scotsman did not create a single break point in the game but he was also up against an opponent whose attacking instincts paid off with some superb winning strokes as he took his place in the last four of a Grand Slam for the first time.

"He played great. He hit big shots. He passed extremely well. He hit a lot of lines on big points. He served well. That was it. He played a great match," said a dejected Murray.

Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland serves to Andy Murray of Britain at the US Open tennis championships in New York, Sept 5, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Wawrinka will face the winner of Thursday's other quarterfinal between top-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic and Russian 21st seed Mikhail Youzhny and he sounded genuinely surprised at upsetting Murray.

"It feels amazing for sure, especially here. He's defending champion, he's a tough opponent. It was a crazy match for me. To beat him in three sets is just amazing," he said.

The match turned in Wawrinka's favor at the end of the opening set, which was on serve at 5-4 to the Swiss but ended in an enthralling 10th game.

Murray made several errors but still managed to save five set points. He finally gave up the set when he sent a forehand long and responded by angrily smashing his racket onto the court.

"That was the hardest part of the match, the 5-4 game in the first set was important game. I had a chance to close it out, he had quite a few chances. I made a few mistakes," said Murray.

"But I mean, for the most part I didn't create break point chance, so he served well."