Murray battles to first round win

Andy Murray fought back from a set down to beat Robin Haase in the first round of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

Former world number one Murray, 123rd in the ATP rankings, showed all his trademark fighting spirit to clinch a 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 win in just over two-and-a-half hours.

The 33-year-old lost the first set in 34 minutes after being broken twice, but saved two break points in the seventh game of the second and held his nerve in the tie-break to level the match.

Murray fell 3-0 behind after losing his opening service game in the decider but came storming back against world number 193 Haase and reeled off the last six games to seal a memorable victory.

The Scot, who pulled out of last month’s Australian Open after testing positive for coronavirus, was back on court after losing last week in his first ATP Tour match for four months.

The 33-year-old lost in straight sets to Belarus’ Egor Gerasimov at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier.

Cameron Norrie continued his good start to 2021 with victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili in his first round match.

British number three Norrie, who reached the third round of the Australian Open, won two matches in qualifying to reach the main draw and was a 6-0 6-3 winner over 40th-ranked Basiliashvili.

The Georgian has been on a wretched run of form and is one of the major beneficiaries of a change to the ranking system because of the coronavirus pandemic allowing players to count results from two years rather than one.

Basilashvili, who is facing charges of domestic violence in his homeland, has now lost 14 of his last 16 matches, with his only two victories coming against players ranked outside the top 250.

Nevertheless, it was another good performance from Norrie, who was rock solid in the first set while his opponent made a succession of errors.

● Jelena Ostapenko brushed aside fifth seed Kiki Bertens in straight sets to reach the second round of the Qatar Open.

Latvian Ostapenko, French Open winner in 2017 and a former finalist in Doha, cruised to a 6-0 6-2 win in under an hour.

Andy Murray fought back from 3-0 down.