World number one Andy Murray has squandered a 4-0 lead in the deciding set of his third-round match with Albert Ramos-Vinolas to suffer a shock exit at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The 29-year-old, competing for just the second time in a month after partially recovering from an elbow injury, went down 2-6 6-2 7-5 to the Spanish 15th seed.
Living up to his top-seed ranking, Murray took the opening set despite struggling to hold on to his serve, breaking his opponent four times.
Ramos-Vinolas was soon back in the match, though, holding in the second set and breaking Murray in the third and seventh games to pave the way for a decider.
It looked like being plain sailing into the fourth round for Murray but his lowly-ranked opponent incredibly battled back from four-love down, taking the next four games to level things up and then getting over the line with another break in the 11th.
Marin Cilic now awaits Ramos-Vinolas in the last eight after overcoming Tomas Berdych elsewhere on Thursday afternoon.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2015 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.