Andy Murray's inaugural singles match of 2024 ended in disappointment as he was knocked out of the Brisbane International by Grigor Dimitrov in the first round.
The former world number one had not taken to the court in a singles contest since October's Paris Masters loss to Alex de Minaur, although he partnered up with Holger Rune for a doubles encounter with Aslan Karatsev and Roman Safiullin on New Year's Eve.
That encounter saw Murray and Rune eliminated despite winning the first set, and an identical story befell the Briton on Monday, as Dimitrov overcame a slow start to prevail 4-6 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 27 minutes.
Meetings between Murray and Dimitrov have been commonplace down the years, as the duo squared up for the 13th time on New Year's Day, with the Bulgarian winning the most recent contest in the second round of last year's US Open.
Dimitrov struggled to make early inroads on the Murray serve, though, and while serving to stay in the first set, the second seed double-faulted and produced an unforced error at the worst possible time to fall 1-0 down.
After breaking for a 5-4 lead in the second set, Dimitrov was again pegged back by a determined Murray, but the 36-year-old lost serve immediately afterwards as Dimitrov levelled the contest, saving another two break points in the process.
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The Bulgarian's efforts were slightly hampered by a string of broken racquets, although Murray's resilience eluded him at the start of the third set, where a couple of mistakes helped Dimitrov break to love straight away.
The world number 14 put one foot firmly in the second round with a four-game winning streak, and while a jaded Murray restored some pride with a pair of holds, he could not convert a crucial break point while returning to stay in the match and bowed out on Dimitrov's 13th ace of the night.
Dimitrov will now take on either Germany's Daniel Altmaier or Australian qualifier Li Tu for a place in the quarter-finals, while elsewhere in Brisbane, Naomi Osaka marked her highly-anticipated return to action with a straight-sets victory.
In her first match since September 2022, the four-time major winner overcame Germany's Tamara Korpatsch 6-3 7-6[9] and has been rewarded with a second-round match against another former world number one in Karolina Pliskova.
Two Britons were also in action at the Hong Kong Open, where Liam Broady beat Argentina's Roman Burruchaga 6-2 6-3 in qualifying to set up a first-round battle with Pedro Cachin.
Broady will meet top seed Andrey Rublev should he get the better of Cachin, but Jan Choinski's hopes of a main-draw appearance were dashed in a 4-6 6-3 4-6 loss to Japan's Taro Daniel.
