Andy Murray bemoans missed opportunities after loss to Radek Stepanek

Murray's defence of the Queen's Club title was brought to an abrupt end by Stepanek, who produced a fine display to qualify for the quarter-finals 7-6 (12-10) 6-2.

The Brit had won his previous 19 matches on grass, including last year's successes at Queen's and Wimbledon, and looked well set when leading 6-3 in the tie-break.

However, the world number five spurned eight set points, allowing Stepanek to strike and take the lead.

From there the Czech proved unstoppable as he raced to a deserved triumph, leaving Murray to bemoan his missed opportunities.

"I thought the first set was a pretty high standard," said Murray.

"I thought he served pretty well throughout the whole match.

"I have only got myself to blame that I lost the first set. I don't know how many set points I had, but quite a lot of them were on my serve.

"On this surface especially you shouldn't really be losing sets like that. For me, that's what's disappointing about the match.

"And then unfortunately I got broken in the first game of the second set. I couldn't quite get it back."