Murray powers back to win after early jitters against Jaziri in UAE
ANDY Murray brushed off the rust with a straight-sets win over Malek Jaziri in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships.
The world No.1 was playing a singles match for the first time since his shock loss to Mischa Zverev in the fourth round of the Australian Open five weeks ago.
He revealed ahead of the tournament that he was laid low by a bout of shingles following his return from Australia but looked in decent form here.
The Scot made a slow start and struggled to find his first serve but he got better as the match went on and emerged a comfortable 6-4 6-1 winner.
The first set was anything but comfortable for the 29-year-old Murray, however, with 51st-ranked Jaziri playing with freedom and taking advantage of his opponent’s difficulties on serve.
The Tunisian, in the best form of his career at 33, broke for 2-1 on a very fortuitous net cord but Murray hit straight back and broke serve again to win the opening set.
Although the Scot’s first-serve percentage languished at 40, he was in total control in the second set and wrapped up victory inside an hour and 20 minutes. In the second round, Murray will face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Meanwhile, Dan Evans continued his fine form in 2017 with victory over Dustin Brown in the opening round.
The British number two took a break after helping Great Britain to victory over Canada in the Davis Cup three weeks ago.
But Evans, who is at a career-high ranking of 43, showed no signs of rust as he brushed aside unorthodox JamaicanGerman Brown 6-2 6-3 in 51 minutes.
The 26-year-old was dominant on serve, dropping just five points, as he set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Gael Monfils.
Seven-time Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship winner Roger Federer eased into the second round with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 victory over Benoit Paire. The Swiss, seeded third, took just 54 minutes as he won 6-1 6-3 in his first competitive outing since winning last month’s Australian Open.
He will meet the winner of the all-Russian match between Mikhail Youzhny and qualifier Evgeny Donskoy.
Fourth seed Gael Monfils took 80 minutes to see off Egyptian wildcard Mohamed Safwat, winning 6-4 6-3.
E a r l i e r G e r ma n y ’ s Philipp Kohlschreiber, who is now two away from a 400th win of his career, dispatched eighth seed Gilles Muller 6-4 7-6 (7/1).
Spaniards Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcel Granollers and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez are all into the second round after victories over Russian Karen Khachanov, the Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely and Serbia’s Viktor Troicki respectively.
At the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, fifth seed David Goffin eased into the second round with a 6-1 6-2 win over Stephane Robert. And Steve Johnson who got the better of the eighth-seeded John Isner 6-4 6-4.
Borna Coric beat Lucas Gomez 6-1 6-1 and Adrian Mannarino beat Taylor Fritz in three sets.
And at the Brasil Open in Sao Paolo, Renzo Olivo, Gastao Elias and Guido Pella all went through to the second round with straight-sets victories.