Murray recovers from slow start to win in Shanghai

SHANGHAI: A roaring Andy Murray recovered from dropping the first set to beat Argentine qualifier Juan Ignacio Londero in his Shanghai Masters opener on Monday.

The 32-year-old Briton, returning from career-saving hip surgery in January, won 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and meets Italian 10th seed Fabio Fognini in the second round.

The former No 1 won his first ATP Tour singles match since surgery two weeks ago in China’s Zhuhai and followed that up by reaching the quarter-finals last week in Beijing when he lost to eventual winner Dominic Thiem. The 56th-ranked Londero surged into a first-set lead but Murray fought back to force a deciding set. Murray, a three-time champion at the Shanghai Masters, broke the Argentine in the fourth game of the third set, but was then broken himself and screamed in frustration. But he was yelling again minutes later, letting out a prolonged roar after he buried a crosscourt forehand to break once more and go 4-2 up.

Londero, 5-2 down after surrendering a glimpse of a break, furiously slapped himself in the face several times at the changeover. But it could not prevent Murray from marching into the second round.

Murray climbed over 200 places in the new ATP rankings released on Monday while Novak Djokovic extended his lead over Rafael Nadal at the top. Murray’s recent run lifted him 214 places from 503 in the world to 289. Djokovic’s win in Tokyo at the weekend means the Serb is at number one for the 271st week of his career, one more than Ivan Lendl and trailing only Roger Federer (310) and Pete Sampras (286).

Djokovic heads to Shanghai as defending champion while Nadal, his closest pursuer 1,140 points behind, has had to pull out with a wrist injury he picked up during last month’s Laver Cup.

Thiem’s victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Beijing sees the Austrian close to just 50 points behind the Russian Daniil Medvedev.

OSAKA BACK IN TOP-3

PARIS: Naomi Osaka’s win over world No 1 Ashleigh Barty in Beijing at the weekend lifted the Japanese player back into the top three in the new WTA rankings released on Monday.