Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra knocked out Jamie Murray and Max Mirnyi in the first round of the Hamburg Masters men's doubles 5-7 6-3 10-7.

Briton Murray and Belarusian Mirnyi, seeking their second title of the season after their triumph at Delray Beach in February, looked in promising form as they took the first set against the French pair 7-5.

They suffered a poor start in the second, going 3-1 down before fighting back to 3-3.

The effort was in vain as their opponents won three consecutive games to close out the set and take it to a deciding tie-break.

That was won 10-7 by Benneteau and Llodra, who will now face Swede Jonas Bjorkman and partner Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe in the second round.

American singles specialists Mardy Fish and James Blake, playing together in Germany, are already through to the third round and await the winners of that tie.

Scot Murray, whose brother Andy will face Gilles Simon in the men's singles second round on Wednesday, teamed up with Mirnyi at the start of the 2008 season but the pair have struggled to a 1-4 record on clay together.

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport