Andy Murray suffered an early exit at the Paris Masters round of 64 on Monday as he fell to lucky loser Dominik Koepfer in a marathon three-hour contest.
The three-time Grand Slam champion squandered seven match points as he was edged out in a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (9) defeat at the hands of Germany’s Koepfer, who replaced American qualifier Jenson Brooksby following his withdrawal earlier on Monday.
Koepfer twice broke Murray’s serve in the opening set as he raced to a 5-2 lead. The German gave up two set points shortly after as Murray broke back, but Koepfer eventually served out to take a definitive early lead.
Murray looked to be on track for a quick exit as Koepfer broke him in the first game of the second set, but the Scot came back to win 7-5 and set up a final-set decider.
The pair were evenly matched before Murray earned his first two match points as he looked to take the set 6-4. However, Koepfer held steady, instead forcing the final set to a tiebreaker. The Scot then failed in five further match points as Koepfer refused to be beaten before claiming three-successive points to win out the match.
Elsewhere on Monday, Britain’s Dan Evans fell 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, while compatriot Cameron Norrie won in straight sets over Argentina’s Federico Delbonis.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will play Marton Fucsovics on Tuesday in his first match since he lost his career Grand Slam hopes were ended at the US Open final in Septemeber.