In his first competitive appearance since the Australian Open, Andy Murray produced a classic comeback victory to beat Lorenzo Sonego in the first round of the Qatar Open.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 35-year-old Briton showed trademark resilience to rally to a 4-6, 1-6, 7-6(4) first-round victory against Lorenzo Sonego on Monday. The two-time Doha champion saved three match points before prevailing at the ATP 250 tournament.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It was really tough," Murray was quoted by the ATP Tour website. "We never played together, or practised with each other before, so I didn't know exactly how the match was going to go and it took a while to get used to his game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"He's a very aggressive player, takes a lot of chances, but it's high-risk tennis. He rolled the dice at the end, and it looked like he had momentum. But thankfully in the mid-part of that tie-break, he made a couple of mistakes and I managed to turn it around."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was the second tournament in a row where Murray's first-round match was settled by a deciding-set tie-break. He also saved a match point before edging Matteo Berrettini in his opener at January's Australian Open, where he later rallied from two-sets-to-love down to defeat Thanasi Kokkinakis in a second-round epic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Murray, who is a four-time finalist in Doha and lifted the trophy in 2008 and 2009, is now 7-0 in opening-round matches at the outdoor hard-court event.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 46-time tour-level titlist will play fourth seed German Alexander Zverev in the second round as he bids to reach his first ATP Tour quarterfinal of the season.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Murray, who is a four-time finalist in Doha and lifted the trophy in 2008 and 2009, is now 7-0 in opening-round matches at the outdoor hard-court event.<\/p>\r\n\r\n