Marathon Murray starts with battling Basel win

Andy Murray followed his most recent match template, struggling through a marathon match to scratch his way into the second round of the Swiss Indoors in Basel on Monday.

The Scot defeated German Yannik Hanfmann 7-5, 6-4 but not without difficulty during their two and a quarter hours on court at the St Jakobshalle.

The effort mimicked Murray’s result this season, where he has won just two matches which lasted for less than two hours.

“It was a very physical match, the first four or five games lasted 30 minutes,” Murray said. “It was good opener to get through.

“I served for both sets, I did well to regroup and finish  it off. I did a lot of things well but some things need to be improved.

“Why the matches go so slow I don’t know. Conditions could also be prolonging the matches, more than 5-10 years ago.

“I need to try and win as many free points as I can. It would be nice to get some shorter matches..”

The 36-year-old three-time Grand Slam winner led 5-2 but failed to serve out the 80-minute opening set, finally securing it 7-5,

The second was much the same as the Scot missed out when he served for the win leading 5-2 before losing serve as Hanfmann climbed to 4-5.

Murray finally came through with a timely break-back a game later, advancing into the second round on his first winning chance on Hanfmann’s forehand long.

Hanfmann, a former American university player in California, missed on six of his eight break chances, while Murray broke the German four times.

The Scot ended with 19 winners and 22 unforced errors