Top-ranked Andy Murray threw away a 4-0 lead in the deciding set of his third-round match on Thursday as 15th-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas won 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Murray, who is returning after a spell out with a right elbow injury, looked rusty on the clay-court surface and struggled on his serve in a scrappy match lasting more than 2 ½ hours and featuring 13 service breaks — including seven against Murray, who struggled with the Spaniard's heavy forehands.
"I'm disappointed to lose from the position that I was in," said Murray, last year's French Open runner-up. "Being 4-love up in the third, I haven't lost many matches like that in my career."
Former French Open and Monte Carlo champion Stan Wawrinka followed Murray out of the tournament, losing 6-4, 6-4 to 16th-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.
"He obviously started playing better toward the end of the set. I still had a bunch of chances, I guess both of us did really," Murray said. "I should have been able to do enough to sort of weather that storm a little bit and finish the match off." Murray refused to blame the elbow injury that ruled him out of the Miami Open and the recent Davis Cup quarterfinal against France.
"My elbow felt pretty good," he said. "That's only going to get better. So hopefully I keep going in the right direction."
In a match between powerful hitters, Cilic was serving for victory at 5-4. After a long game Berdych broke back for 5-5 and then forced a tiebreaker, but the Czech player wilted against the 2014 US Open champion. No 11 lucas Pouille of France was leading 3-0 when countryman Adrian Mannarino retired with a hip problem.
later Thursday, No 2 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Rafael Nadal will be in action. No 4 Nadal takes on No 14 Alexander Zverev, and Djokovic plays No. 13 Pablo Carreno Busta.