Andy Murray registered his 699th career win at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Monday night - and in true Murray fashion, it was far from straightforward.
The former world No 1, returning to Dubai for the first time since winning the title in 2017, managed to "tough it out" against Australian qualifier Christopher O'Connell, taking the victory 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 in eight minutes shy of three hours. It was far from vintage Murray but a marked improvement from last week's effort in Doha, where he won just a single game against Roberto Bautista Agut in one of the heaviest defeats in his career.
"I enjoyed the result, what went on in the middle was not so easy," Murray, 34, said in his on-court interview. "I was very frustrated at the start of the match, I couldn't quite find my game. He was dictating a lot of the rallies but I managed to serve a bit better as the match went on, which helped me a lot. I just managed to tough it out in the end."
Indeed, Murray cut a frustrated figure for much of the first set as the Briton squandered three break points in the sixth game before getting broken himself in ninth. He managed to respond immediately with a break of his own when O'Connell served for the set but it was the Australian who edged a close tiebreak to claim the opener.
Murray quickly asserted control in the second set, though, breaking in the first game and again in ninth to level the match. After most of the deciding set had stayed on serve, Murray needed to fend off four break points at 4-4 to prevent O'Connell serving for the match. Two solid service holds followed, before the Australian wilted in the 12th game and Murray closed out a battling victory for his sixth straight win in Dubai.
Since his title triumph in Dubai, Murray has spent most of the intervening years either battling against a severe hip injury or on the road to recovery from the surgery which saved his career. Currently ranked world No 89, the three-time Grand Slam champion is some way off his glory days but the fire still burns bright.
"I've spoken to a lot of ex-players and a lot of them have said, 'keep playing as long as you can, nothing will replace it'. Some have maybe regretted stopping a little bit too soon and I still feel I can compete at the highest level," said Murray, who will take on either Italian fourth seed Jannick Sinner or Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. "It's not easy, obviously, physically it's very challenging for me but winning matches like this is very satisfying."
In the first match on Centre Court, Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely earned his first long-awaited win in Dubai after an impressive performance against former US Open champion Marin Cilic.
Three previous visits to Dubai had resulted in three first round losses for Vesely and the world No 123 finally tasted victory, defeating Cilic 6-4, 7-6. He will play either Spanish eighth seed, and 2018 champion, Bautista Agut or France's Arthur Rinderknech in the second round.
In the subsequent match, Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri was defeated after losing out in a close three-set battle against Serbia's Filip Krajinovic 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
The world No 297, a regular visitor to the tournament and a popular player among the fans, belied his ranking to go toe-to-toe with the world No 44, and fought back from an early deficit to take the first set.
Jaziri, who reached a career-high No 42 in January 2019 and made the Dubai semi-finals the previous year, faced a tougher challenge in the second set as Krajinovic broke twice to level the match.
The third set could have gone either way, until Jaziri produced an untimely wobble to hand Krajinovic the break and an opportunity to serve out the match, which he did on his second match point. The 29-year-old Serb will face either defending champion Aslan Karatsev or American Mackenzie McDonald in the second round.
Over on Court One, David Goffin's difficult start to the season continued after the Belgian was lost 6-3, 7-6 to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel for his third straight first-round defeat.
