Andy Murray made a winning start to his campaign at the Swiss Indoors in Basel by beating Yannick Hanfmann 7-5 6-4 on Monday to reach the second round.
The former world number 1, a quarter-finalist here in Basel 18 years ago, came into the match having suffered two first-round knockouts in Beijing and Shanghai, but fought hard before beating Germany’s Hanfmann.
Murray will face the winner of the match between eighth seed Sebastian Korda and Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
The 36-year-old faced eight break points and was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set.
However, Murray broke his opponent’s serve four times and was victorious in two hours and 19 minutes.
German with a large portion Jan-Lennard Struff broke a four-match losing streak to beat American Christopher Eubanks 7-6 (9-7) 6-4, while Sebastian Baez fought his way past Christopher O’Connell 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-3.
The 22-year-old will next meet top seed Holger Rune or Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.
In Vienna, Karen Khachanov passed Roman Safiullin 6-4 6-4 in a first career meeting between the two Russians in the first round.
Khachanov, who claimed his fifth title – and first in five years – at the Zhuhai Championships in late September, has made a triumphant return to form after a stress fracture suffered at the French Open kept him out for two months.