Olympics: Murray Crashes Out in First Round of Men's Singles

Andy Murray has been beaten in the first round of the men's tennis singles, losing 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to the world No77 Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei.

After twice failing to capitalize on breaks of serve in the opening set, the Scot eventually went down 7-5 in the tie-break. Lu then battled through to take the second set and end the hopes of a dejected Murray.

Lu played with more accuracy and purpose, but Murray had only himself to blame for the loss of the opening set after going both 4-2 and 5-3 up, only to be broken back immediately each time. Murray then fought back from 6-2 down in the tie-break to 6-5, only to double-fault and hand his opponent the set.

Growing in confidence, Lu held serve in the opening game of the second set, and then broke Murray when the world No6 flailed an awful backhand well wide of the tramlines.

However, Murray hit straight back after a brief rain delay forced the players off, breaking his opponent to haul the set back level at 2-2. He then failed to take a crucial chance in the ninth game when he spurned four points to break again for a 5-4 lead.

Instead Lu hung on, forcing the Scot to serve out to stay in the tournament. Murray, looking distinctly ill at ease, failed to respond, and fired a series of unforced errors to slide to a miserable defeat.