London, 7 February 2024 (PA Media/dpa/MIA) - Andy Murray’s miserable run continued with a first-round loss to Tomas Machac at the Open 13 Provence on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old’s 7-5, 6-4 defeat by Czech Machac in Marseille was his sixth in a row dating back to October and means he has won only one of his last 10 matches.

Murray has admitted he is weighing up when to retire, but he railed against a suggestion he could be tarnishing his legacy by playing on, writing on X, formerly Twitter last week: “Most people would quit and give up in my situation right now. But I’m not most people and my mind works differently. I won’t quit.”

This was not a bad performance against a player on the rise in 23-year-old Machac, ranked 66, but again there were costly lapses.

Murray recovered from an early break and appeared to have the momentum late in the opening set, only for Machac to break serve at 5-5.

The Czech then moved ahead early in the second set and Murray was unable to recover the deficit.

Photo: EPA