Andy Murray taken down by Diego Schwartzman at European Open in Antwerp

Andy Murray lost out to Diego Schwartzman in Antwerp.

The Scot, who won the title in Antwerp two years ago, came into the match on the back of a gruelling three-sets, first-round win over Frances Tiafoe and while he showed little ill-effects of that near-four match, the step up in quality was evident against the second seed from Argentina, who is ranked 13 and 159 places above Murray. He secured a 6-4 7-6 (5) success in two hours, 15 minutes.

This was the first-ever encounter between the duo and while Schwartzman’s best surface is undoubtedly clay, he is very handy on a hard court and from early on made life extremely difficult for Murray.

It was the Brit, however, who made the first move to break serve in the fourth game of the first set, but Schwartzman showed all of his quality by fighting back from 4-1 down, breaking Murray twice and reeling off five games in a row to take the opening set 6-4.

Schwartzman got his nose in front in the second set, breaking for a 4-2 lead, but Murray rallied and managed to force a tie-break, which ebbed and flowed before Schwartzman ended a run of eight points against the serve to put his nose in front and eventually take it 7-5.

“It was a pleasure to play against him,” said Schwartzman of Murray. "When I was growing up, I watched him, Roger, Rafa, Novak. We didn’t play before and every week, he’s coming back and getting better.

"I like being here. I like the city, I like the history. I’m trying to enjoy it every day.”

Schwartzman progresses to the quarter-finals, where he will take on either Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland or young American Brandon Nakashima.

In the other last-eight ties, Italian top seed Jannik Sinner faces Arthur Rinderknech of France, Hungary’s Marton Fuscovics takes on big-serving South African Lloyd Harris, while another young American in 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby plays Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Murray now moves on to the Austrian capital of Vienna. He has been awarded a wildcard for the Erste Bank Open next week, which is the last ATP 500 Series event of the season.