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Sub-par Murray pays price against Chardy

Andy Murray was beaten on Thursday © Getty Images

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Andy Murray was knocked out of the Cincinnati Masters by Jeremy Chardy on Thursday, as the Frenchman completed a surprise 6-4 6-4 victory.

Murray, who has been affected by a knee injury in recent weeks, did not appear to be suffering any ill-effects of the ailment against his French opponent. Instead, he was left frustrated as Chardy found the right shots - or got the right slice of luck - at the right times to sneak away with a straight sets victory.

It was an evenly fought contest - Chardy creating just one more break point opportunity (eight) than his Scottish opponent, but taking double the number (four) - that could have gone another way on a different day.

Murray certainly was not at his best as he attempted to reach the quarter-finals of a tournament he won last year, but his preparations for the forthcoming US Open are unlikely to be unduly affected.

"I won't play any more matches," Murray, who had admitted to struggling with the bounce of the courts, said afterwards. "When going into the big tournaments, sometimes I've won tournaments in the buildup and it hasn't helped me. This year at Wimbledon, I lost in the first round at Queen's and made the final there for the first time. I have won Queen's before and not done well at Wimbledon.

"So it doesn't normally have that much bearing. But obviously I would have liked to have done a bit better this week."

After dropping a close-fought opening set, Murray struggled valiantly to fight back in the second - but time and again Chardy shut the door on any slight openings he created.

Nowhere was this more unfortunate than with the score at 4-3 in Chardy's favour, with the Frenchman held to 30-30 on his serve. Murray played a perfect point to gain the upper hand, firing a forehand passing shot before moving to the net to finish the point off. Chardy had nowhere to go as he looked destined to give up a crucial break point, but his backhand hit the net cord and flew wickedly over Murray's head before dropping well inside the baseline - a piece of cruel fortune that saw Murray react by throwing his racquet into the net in disgust.

That felt like the decisive moment in the bout, and so it proved. After holding the next game, Murray once again got the scores to 30-30 as Chardy attempted to serve out the contest. But the Frenchman fired his fourth (and final) ace of the match to engineer a match point, and was then able to celebrate after Murray sliced a poor backhand wide of the court.

The Scot made a quick escape from the court, perhaps keen to get his preparations for Flushing Meadows underway as soon as possible.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.