Another week, one other Andy Murray comeback win in 2023.

The 46-time tour-level titlist confirmed trademark resilience to rally to a 4-6, 1-6, 7-6(4) first-round victory towards Lorenzo Sonego on Monday on the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. The two-time champion saved three match factors earlier than prevailing on the ATP 250 match.

Murray saved the match factors from 4-5, 15/40 on his personal serve within the deciding set and later trailed 0/3 within the deciding tie-break. The 35-year-old raised his stage in model from there, nevertheless, successful seven of the final eight factors to clinch a two-hour, 30-minute win.

“It was really tough,” stated Murray post-match. “We by no means performed collectively, or practised with one another earlier than, so I didn’t know precisely how the match was going to go and it took some time to get used to his sport.

“He’s a very aggressive player, takes a lot of chances, but it’s high-risk tennis. He rolled the dice at the end, and it looked like he had the momentum, but thankfully in the mid-part of that tie-break he made a couple of mistakes and I managed to turn it round.”

It was the second match in a row the place Murray’s first-round match was settled by a deciding-set tie-break. He additionally saved a match level earlier than edging Matteo Berrettini in his opener at January’s Australian Open, the place he later rallied from two-sets-to-love all the way down to defeat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a second-round epic.

A sluggish begin from Murray in Doha price him dearly within the first set after Sonego broke the Briton to like within the first sport. There have been no additional break factors for both man because the Italian moved forward, however Murray struck again in model within the second set, racing to a 5-0 lead that proved unassailable by staying aggressive and putting cleanly off each wings from the baseline.

The tension-filled third set seemed to be on the racquet of Sonego, who steadily painted the strains with some enormous groundstrokes and at one stage received 13 factors in a row on serve. Yet Murray was to not be denied, as his late cost earned the victory regardless of the previous World No. 1 having hit simply 20 winners to Sonego’s 34.

Monday’s win means Murray, who’s a four-time finalist in Doha and lifted the trophy in 2008 and 2009, is now 7-0 in opening-round matches on the outside hard-court occasion. The 35-year-old Briton will play fourth seed Alexander Zverev within the second spherical as he bids to achieve his first ATP Tour quarter-final of the season.

“He’s clearly one of many prime gamers on the planet,” said Murray of Zverev, against whom he holds a 2-1 ATP Head2Head series lead. “He had a foul harm at [Roland Garros] final 12 months and is simply getting back from that. He’s going to be bettering each week simply now.

“He’s not quite at the level he was back in the middle of last year, but injuries like that take time. It will be another great match, hopefully I can keep building on this one.”