Signs good for Murray as he makes longawaited comeback.

QUEEN’S: Battling qualities evident as Scot loses to friend Kyrgios

Andy Murray put up a spirited fight but his competitive return to tennis ended in a three-set defeat to Nick Kyrgios in the first-round of the Fever-tree Championships yesterday.

The Scot, who last played 342 days ago at Wimbledon 2017 and is now ranked 156th in the world, showed all of his usual fight and took the first set before the Australian battled back to win 2-6 7-6 (7/4) 7-5 at Queen’s Club.

Despite the loss, Murray will take great encouragement from his long-awaited return; he still had a visible limp and sometimes looked to struggle with side-to-side movement, but had chances to win and has lost none of his renowned competitive spirit.

It allowed Kyrgios, who also looked to be struggling with injury, a first win over his good friend at the sixth attempt in two hours and 39 minutes.

After two aborted comebacks and eventual surgery on his troublesome hip injury, all eyes were on how Murray would fair in a competitive environment and he soon showed his mettle by saving a break point in the opening game.

He had two more to save in the fourth game and that proved a pivotal moment as Kyrgios went rogue after that.

Known for his ability to check out of matches, the Australian served an incredible four double faults in the next game, including twice trying to send down second serves in excess of 135mph.

Murray, against an opponent he probably knows he has the better of mentally, cashed into reel off four successive games and cl inch the first set 6-2.

Following the high of winning that first set came a sudden low as after losing his first two service games the Briton found himself 3-1 down.

While there are still doubts about fitness, his desire can never be questioned and he battled back in typical Murray fashion, forcing kyrgios to serve to stay in the match.

The Australian did so, and then played the better tiebreak to force a deciding set.

It then became a battle of the walking wounded as Murray was feeling his back while Kyrgios was struggling with an apparent left hip problem.

Murray had to save break points to level up at 3-3 and then fended off two match points at 4-5 as his incredible resilience shone through.

Kyrgios would not go away, though, and sealed victory with a third match point, which came, frustratingly for Murray from a double fault.

Kyrgios now faces British No 1 Kyle Edmund who gave the British fans that were upset by Murray’s earlier defeat something to cheer about as he took the first set on a tiebreak 7-6 (7/4) against Ryan Harrison.

Edmund was then broken early on by his American opponent but hit back immediately to win the second – and the match – 6-4.

Dan Evans snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in his first match back on the ATP Tour since his drugs ban.

The Briton, who has been playing Challenger events since returning to the game in April, served for the match in his first-round match with Adrian Mannarino but ended up losing 6-4 0-6 7-5.

He is ranked 340 in the world and was on the verge of victory at 5-3 in the deciding set, but the Frenchman reeled off four games on the bounce to snatch the win.

Evans will find out today if he has been handed a wild card into this year’s Wimbledon.

● Word no 1 Roger Federer extended his unbeaten run on grass to 17 matches by beating Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene in the Halle Open first round.

The 36-year-old Swiss, who lifted the Stuttgart title last week, won 6-3 6-4.

Next up for Federer, who is chasing a record-extending 10th title in Halle, is Frenchman Benoit Paire.

● British No 1 Johanna Konta was beaten 6-3 6-4 by defending champion Petra Kvitova in the first round of the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.

Getty. Andy Murray shows his fighting spirit in his long-awaited comeback match against Nick Kyrgios.