Andy Murray crashes out of Paris Masters

Andy Murray crashed out of the Paris Masters after slumping to a shock third-round defeat to qualifier Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. US Open champion Murray was beaten in three sets 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.

Britain’s number one, Andy Murray took the opening set 7-5 and missed a match point in the second before Janowicz won it in a tie-break to force a decider.

And the Pole raced through the third set 6-2 against a fast-fading Murray, who will now get an unexpected few days of rest ahead of next week’s season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

World No.69 Janowicz reached the last 16 of a Masters event for the first time with impressive wins over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Marin Cilic earlier in the week and looked unfazed as he held his opening five service games against Murray without facing a break point.

But, just as he did against Paul-Henri Mathieu the previous day, Murray claimed a timely break in the 11th game – gifted by Janowicz’s first double fault – and served out the set 7-5.

Murray’s first serve percentage dipped in the second set but with Janowicz failing to make an impression against serve, the Scot was able to hold with relative ease.

Pressure began to build on Janowicz, though, and Murray appeared to land a hammer blow in the seventh game of the second set when a stunning forehand winner down the line gave him a break.

The Pole cut a dejected figure at that point but the world No.3, serving for the match at 30-0, handed the initiative back to Janowicz with a lacklustre end to the game, which saw him broken for the first time.

With the momentum behind him, Janowicz won the tie-breaker 7-4 and from that point Murray went into meltdown, losing his serve twice in an error-strewn deciding set.