Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat against Roman Safiullin in the last 16 of the Rennes Open to get himself out of the competition. 

The British tennis star lost the match 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 against Russia’s Roman Safiullin, who is currently ranked 158th in the world. 

The 34-year-old looked like a top contender in the tournament after his comfortable victory over Yannick Maden in the first round of the competition on Monday. 

He eased past the German 6-3, 6-1 to confidently enter the contest against Safiullin on Wednesday. 

But the world number 116 was stunned by the brilliant performance of the Russian, who only made his Grand Slam debut earlier this year at the Australian Open. 

The 24-year-old took the first set easily after taking a commanding lead by breaking twice. 

However, the British tennis star made a comeback in the second set, breaking for the first time at 4-4 on his way to levelling the match. 

Murray failed to convert after securing a break point in Safiullin’s opening service game before the 24-year-old profited from a lucky net deflection to break in the following game. 

The former US Open winner never seemed to recover after that and went on to lose the deciding set, with Safiullin ultimately claiming a 6-2 4-6 6-1 victory.