Andy Murray paid the price of burning the candle at both ends as he crashed out of the BNP Paribas Paris Masters to the Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek.

Just 16 hours after completing a gruelling second-round victory over the USA's James Blake, the Scot was back on court in the French capital against the world number 14.

The British number one flew out of the blocks and romped into a one-set lead, but having secured victory at the Valencia Open last week in his first tournament in nearly two months, the Scot ran out of puff in Paris, going down 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Stepanek piled on the pressure in the second set and Murray wilted. The Czech proved too strong and levelled the scores at one-set all as fatigue kicked in for the world number four.

In the third set, Stepanek was just as dominant and twice broke Murray for a 5-2 lead, seemingly set to serve out the match and complete a comprehensive victory.

The fiery Scot dug deep and broke back before holding serve, forcing a nervy Stepanek to serve for the match again.

This time however, Stepanek delivered and sent to Scot packing in Paris, claiming his first victory against Murray at the fourth time of asking.