Andy Murray stumbled out of the French Open in the third round on Friday when he lost 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 to Spain's Nicolas Almagro.

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The 10th seeded Scot, who had never won a match at Roland Garros before this week, threatened to make a match of it after taking a tight second set 7-3 in the tiebreak.

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But he never got to grips with Almagro's serve and went down in two hours and 48 minutes.

Almagro, with two claycourt titles under his belt this season, hammered 21 aces and hit a string of winners on both wings, finally sealing victory with a dashing backhand crosscourt winner.

The Spaniard, who had never passed the second round in four previous visits to the French Open, will face either French wildcard Jeremy Chardy or Russian 30th seed Dmitry Tursunov [Images] for a place in the quarter-finals.

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