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Andy Murray made a winning start to his campaign at the Swiss Indoors, Basel by seeing off Yannick Hanfmann 7-5 6-4 on Monday to reach the second round.
The former world No 1, a quarter-finalist here in Basel 18 years ago, came into the match on the back of two first-round exits in Beijing and Shanghai, but he battled hard before defeating Germany’s Hanfmann.
Murray will take on the winner of the match between eighth seed Sebastian Korda and Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
The 36-year-old faced eight break points and was broken when he served for the match at 5-3 in the second set.
However, Murray broke his opponent’s serve four times to triumph in two hours and 19 minutes.
Big-serving German Jan-Lennard Struff snapped a four-match losing streak to edge out 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 eased past 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 at the end of September, has made a triumphant return to form after a stress fracture suffered at the French Open kept him out of the game for two months.
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