Andy Murray took another step forward in his comeback by beating US Open semi-finalist Matteo Berrettini in the first round of the China Open.
Italian Berrettini is at a career-high ranking of 13 and is on course to qualify for next month’s ATP Finals, so Murray’s 7-6 (2) 7-6 (7) victory was hugely impressive considering the Scot only won his first ATP Tour match since January last week.
Murray said: “It was a good one to get through. It was obviously pretty tight at the end of both sets.
“I think first set I probably served a little bit better at the end and then the second set there was just a few sort of cat and mouse points at the end, which thankfully I came out on top of one or two more than him, but it was a very tight match and I thought I played pretty well.”
The victory is arguably Murray’s best since his career-threatening hip problems emerged in the summer of 2017.
Ahead of taking on Cameron Norrie in round two today, Murray said: “Hopefully I can have a good run here. That was a good start for me. It’s the first time I will have played high-level back-to-back days, see how I pull up after that one.”