Andy Murray's bid for a fifth Shanghai Masters title came to an abrupt end with a first-round defeat to Russia's Roman Safiullin on Wednesday.
The former world number one suffered a 3-6 2-6 beating at the hands of the 26-year-old - who is ranked one place lower than him at world number 41 - with 99 minutes on the board to slump to a third successive defeat.
With titles from the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2016 Shanghai Masters events, Murray's four triumphs in China represents his highest tally in any of the ATP 1000 tournaments, but he entered the 2023 edition on the back of a difficult spell.
Following a second-round loss in Zhuhai to Aslan Karatsev, Murray missed three match points in a three-set defeat to Alex de Minaur in Beijing, although he did beat Safiullin in their only previous meeting in Basel last year.
However, with just nine winners compared to a staggering 28 for Safiullin, the three-time Grand Slam winner - who also made 17 unforced errors - was deservedly overcome by the Russian, who broke Murray in his opening service game thanks to an early double fault and unforced error.
Murray had four opportunities to immediately break back in the second game, but Safiullin saved all those break points with a quartet of winners and brought up a timely ace to hold for a 2-0 lead.
© Reuters
Safiullin was not entirely comfortable on serve until a love hold in the eighth game, before Murray began with a double fault while serving to stay in the set and was broken for a second time.
The world number 41's hard work was nearly undone in the first game of the second set as he double-faulted twice, but Murray missed another break point before a double fault of his own contributed to him losing his serve straight away.
However, the Briton was offered a route back into the match - reducing the deficit to 2-1 on an unforced error from Safiullin - but more mistakes off the Murray racquet immediately saw his opponent restore a two-game advantage.
Murray was powerless to defend against a barrage of Safiullin winners, and despite going 30-0 up in his final service game, the 36-year-old was pegged back and fell to a chastening defeat, sending Safiullin into a second-round tie with Alexander Zverev.
Following Murray's exit, only Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie are representing GB in the men's singles tournament, and both men received byes into the second round.
Evans will meet either Alexandre Muller or Mikhail Kukushkin, while Norrie begins his bid for glory against Pedro Cachin or J.J. Wolf.
