Doubles victory consolation for Andy Murray

Feeling the heat: Andy Murray made an unexpected early exit in the men's singles in Beijing
Andy Murray won through to the second round of the Olympic men's doubles tournament with his brother Jamie after crushing disappointment earlier in the singles.

Murray, the world number six, crashed out of the singles at the first hurdle as he lost his opening match 7-6, 6-4 to the unheralded Lu Yen-Hsu of Taipei, in 2 hours 10 minutes.

It was a contest which Murray should never have been troubled in, against an opponent ranked only 77th in the world, who prepared for playing in Beijing by competing on the lower tier challenger tour.

In contrast, Murray’s last match was the final of the ATP Masters Series event in Cincinnati against Novak Djokovic eight days earlier, which gave him his biggest tournament success to date and lifted him to a career-high ranking.

But, on his Olympic debut, the British number one never appeared entirely happy with an opponent playing well above expectations and supported vociferously by the Chinese spectators gathered around Court Number One at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre.

Having begun unspectacularly but reasonably comfortably, Murray allowed himself to be upset at a key moment of the first set by a close line call which went uncorrected as the Hawk-Eye system failed to function.

It meant he had double-faulted at set point down in the tie-break, which he lost 7-5. And, though he had further chances come his way in the second set, Murray was again unable to take advantage.

Playing in cool, overcast, early evening conditions, the Briton could not complain about the weather, though his arrival from Cincinnati only last Thursday left him less time to acclimatise to Beijing than most of the other players.

He performed knee stretches repeatedly and moved poorly around the court, while giving the impression of being irritated even by his Team GB shirt, which he kept pulling at to loosen time and again.

Lu admitted that he did not think beforehand that he had any hope of beating Murray, treating the match as just a good opportunity for a high-quality practice session, but he was surprised how tired the Scot looked.

Things looked like going from bad to worse as Murray, together with brother Jamie, dropped the opening set to Canada's Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer in the doubles event.

But three consecutive breaks of the Niemeyer serve proved enough to take the second set 6-3 and swung the momentum of the match for the start of the decider.

When the Murrays broke Nestor in the fourth game of the deciding set they looked on their way to an extended stay in the Chinese capital after all, only for Jamie to fail to serve out for the match and drag the set back to 5-4.

But the Britons were not to be denied, finally fashioning their somewhat tortuous victory when they broke Niemeyer again as the clock reached midnight Chinese time, for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.