Britain's Andy Murray saw his grass-court season get off to a disastrous start as he lost to Nicolas Mahut in the second round of the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club.
The Scot's title defence came to an abrupt end with a 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-1) defeat by world number 65 Mahut, who has never lifted an ATP World Tour title.
Murray, who received a first-round bye, never looked comfortable and he could not have envisaged a worse way to begin his preparations for Wimbledon, which starts on 25 June.
Mahut will next face Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov in the third round on Thursday.
"It's amazing," the Frenchman told BBC Sport. "Maybe it's the best victory of my career, beating Murray here on Centre Court at Queen's. It was a difficult match and I'm very happy.
"I'm pretty sure Andy will do well at Wimbledon, maybe win this time. I'm really sorry guys, but you will see him winning matches very shortly."
Murray was returning to action after his quarter-final defeat by David Ferrer at the French Open .
He started practising at Queen's on Saturday but this was the first time he has set foot on Centre Court since lifting the trophy 12 months ago , and he looked far from happy with the surface.
Two break points went begging in the opening game as the Scot slid around the back-court, and he again looked accusingly at the turf when Mahut held serve for 3-2.
It seemed to hamper Murray's movement and intensity while also giving Mahut the confidence to go for his shots, which he did to devastating effect in game six.
A forehand on to the line helped the Frenchman engineer his first break point and although he wasted that opportunity, a second was converted with a ruthless cross-court forehand.
Mahut consolidated his strike in textbook fashion - holding serve to love - and soon took control of the match with an ace on set point.
Further trouble loomed for Murray when he put a backhand long to give Mahut a break point at the beginning of the second set.
The British number one scrambled through with a couple of overheads and his first yell of "come on!" suggested he was now in the mood.
Two double-faults gifted Murray a 2-0 lead and he saved three immediate break-back points to move further ahead, but he could not repeat the trick in his next service game.
A backhand floated wide to relinquish the advantage and Mahut levelled at 3-3 with a love hold.
The set would need to be decided by a tie-break and the tension was palpable as Mahut moved to within three points of victory at 4-4.
But Murray's class and experience eventually told, ending a well-constructed attack with a stop-volley for 6-4 before chasing down a drop shot to flick a majestic backhand across Mahut.
A double-fault in game one of set three handed Murray the early initiative, but it was passed straight back when the world number four sent a lob wide on.
After uttering an expletive and repeatedly banging his racquet against his head, Murray regained his composure yet he could not take advantage of a break point in game five as Mahut stood firm.
Another tie-break beckoned but it was a one-sided affair this time as four Murray errors gave Mahut six match points, the second of which he took when Murray sliced a backhand into the net.
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