Andy Murray recovered from a first-set deficit to beat Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin in the first round of the Swiss Indoors in Basel.
The three-time Grand Slam winner trailed after the opening set and was also a break down in the deciding third, but he found a sixth gear to win 6-7[5] 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes.
Aggressive from the off, world number 93 Safiullin remarkably hit four aces in the opening game of the match and broke to love in game four as Murray struggled to get going.
However, Safiullin began to amass a number of unforced errors alongside his winners, and Murray immediately broke back before the first set went all the way to a tie-break.
Murray was being forced to make rapid strides to all corners of the court in the first set as the Russian continued his front-footed style of play, and one effort from the Brit clipped the net tape before landing back on his side to hand Safiullin the first set.
Murray did not hold at all comfortably in the early stages of the second set - Safiullin squandered five break points in the third game - but he secured the vital break in the sixth game to go 4-2 up.
Back-to-back aces sealed the second set for Murray, who was broken in the fourth game of the third set by his 25-year-old opponent and was soon 4-1 down.
However, the world number 49 stormed back to win the next five games and wrap up a three-set win, setting up a second-round match with Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut or Serbia's Laslo Dere in the process.
Ben Knapton
