Andy Murray booed on court as struggling Brit suffers another first-round loss after Australian Open shocker

STRUGGLING Andy Murray was booed on court as he suffered yet another first-round loss.

The veteran Brit, 36, took on Frenchman Benoit Paire in his first match since losing in the opening round of the Australian Open.

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Incredibly, it was Paire's first ATP Tour victory for 18 months - clinched after two hours and 39 minutes on court.

Paire eventually prevailed 2-6 7-6 6-3 in Montpellier at the Open Sud de France in yet more heartache for Murray.

And the partisan 'home' tennis crowd were not ashamed to jeer the former world No1 against underdog Paire.

The unsavoury scenes came early in the first set when a Paire serve saved a break point thanks to a Hawkeye challenge.

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That left Murray frustrated and he complained to the umpire - prompting the hostile reception from the French fans.

However, three-time Grand Slam champ Murray did get the immediate break and raced into a 3-0 lead before winning the opening set 6-2 in 38 minutes.

Paire, who reached a career-high ranking of No18 in 2016, responded by breaking Murray in the opening game of the second set.

And after the Brit broke back to level it up at 4-4, it headed for a tie-break.

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Murray won three successive points from 5-1 down and saved a set point to claw it back to 6-5.

But he lost the next point on his serve and Paire clinched the tie-break 7-5 to level the match and take it into a decider.

After both players had lost their serve early in the third, Paire made the decisive break to lead 5-3 and served it out to seal an impressive win.

The disappointing result means world No49 Murray has now lost his last five matches and picked up just one win in ten.

Murray, who has said this year could be his last on tour if he is "not enjoying it", lost in the opening round to Grigor Dimitrov in Brisbane and fell to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight sets at the Australian Open.

At the back end of 2023, he finished the season with agonising three-set marathon defeats to Alex De Minaur in Paris and Etcheverry at Basel.

There was a great result for Katie Boulter, though, as she thrashed No6 seed Jasmine Paolini 6-2 6-2 in her opening match at the Linz Open in Austria.

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