Andy Murray picked up comfortably the biggest win on his comeback trail by defeating US Open semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini 7-6, 7-6 in the China Open.
Having slumped to 503rd in the world following hip surgery in January, Murray was not expected to unduly trouble the world No13, who also reached the last 16 of this year’s Wimbledon.
But having fallen behind 3-5 in the opening set, the two-time Wimbledon champion broke back with his Italian opponent suffering a litany of unforced errors while serving to pave the way for a tiebreak, which Murray won for the loss of just two points.
Again he fought back from a break down in the second set after losing his opening service game for another tiebreak, a tighter contest which Murray edged 9-7 after saving two set points.
“It’s tough, I haven’t played many matches,” said Murray, whose win set up an all-British clash in the second round with Cameron Norrie. “At the end, I was just trying to fight and played as offensively as possible. It cost me on a few points but helped me out a little bit at the end. It was just one or two points in both sets.
“I think in the first set I served better than him. In the second, I don’t think there was any difference between us. We played very tight points up at the net at the end and, thankfully, I came out on top.”
