Exhausted Andy Murray smashes racket and adds to unwanted record in painful defeat
An exhausted Andy Murray smashed his racket during a marathon defeat to Tomas Etcheverry on Wednesday.
The Brit was beaten 6-7 6-3 6-2 in a gruelling three-hour epic to extend his poor finish to the ATP season.
Murray has now lost four of his last five matches and a frustrating autumn culminated in another outburst in Basel.
The 36-year-old, ranked eight places below Etcheverry in 40th, won a first set which lasted 84 minutes, but became increasingly drained of energy during the drawn-out last-16 clash with the Argentinian.
Despite the Swiss crowd offering moral support, Murray repeatedly smashed his racket on the ground as chances of a first ATP quarter-final since February petered out.
The comeback also denied Murray his biggest win on ranking since May and back-to-back victories for the first time since August.
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His form will worry Britain's Davis Cup captain Leon Smith ahead of the showdown with Novak Djokovic's Serbia next month.
Murray, who is pushing to play singles in Malaga, also missed the opportunity to leapfrog British No.2 Dan Evans in the rankings by losing to Etcheverry.
Elsewhere, Cameron Norrie had no answer to world number 10 Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.