Andy Murray stormed off after struggling a three-set defeat to Benoit Paire within the opening spherical of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier to proceed his disappointing begin to 2024.
Murray, who exited each the Brisbane Worldwide and the Australian Open after his opening match, received the opening set and gave the impression to be heading in the right direction for a spot within the second spherical.
However enigmatic Frenchman Paire fought again to land his first Prime 50 win because the 2022 Australian Open with a 2-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 success on the ATP 250 occasion after two hours and 43 minutes.
Former world No 1 Murray raced right into a 3-0 lead within the opening set after breaking Paire’s first service sport and broke the Frenchman for a second time within the eighth sport to wrap it up 6-2 in 38 minutes.
World No 112 Paire, who hadn’t received a match since Washington in 2022, responded by breaking Murray within the opening sport of the second set and after the Briton broke again to stage it up at 4-4, it headed for a tie-break.
Murray, 36, received three successive factors from 5-1 down and saved a set level to claw it again to 6-5, however misplaced the subsequent level on his serve and Paire clinched the tie-break 7-5 to stage the match.
After each gamers had misplaced their serve early within the decider, there was a controversial second within the seventh sport when Paire’s dipping return was dominated in a lot to Murray’s shock.
Paire then opened a 5-3 and 40-0 lead when Murray was booed for altering his racket.
The Scot went on to save lots of 4 match factors nevertheless it was Paire who finally acquired over the profitable line leaving a annoyed Murray to stomp off courtroom
Murray, who has stated this yr could possibly be his final on tour if he’s “not enjoying it”, misplaced within the opening spherical to Grigor Dimitrov in Brisbane and fell to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight units on the Australian Open.
Paire will subsequent play a French wild card – Harold Mayot or Lucas Pouille within the second spherical on Wednesday.
Michael Mmoh earned his first tour-level indoor hard-court win, defeating Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 6-3 7-5 to achieve the second spherical.
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