![](\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/static-assets\/images\/newsletter\/sport\/sport-135x135.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Andy Murray staged an encouraging recovery from his miserable Chinese stint with a lengthy win over Yannick Hanfmann at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old\u2019s 7-5 6-4 win snapped a three-match losing streak in consecutive tournaments but he was forced to fight against the German world number 51.<\/p>\n
Murray clawed through some marathon opening exchanges to wrest the advantage but was almost pushed into a decider by Hanfmann, who threatened the Scot\u2019s serve throughout.<\/p>\n
The German briefly delayed Murray by converting his eighth break point of the match when he served for the match at 5-3, but Murray immediately responded in kind to seal his place in the next stage.<\/p>\n
Murray said in his on-court interview: \u201cI\u2019m happy to come through. He\u2019s had a brilliant year and he\u2019s been playing very well, so it\u2019s a good result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tough. The first four or five games were something like 45 minutes. I don\u2019t remember having that really before, it was ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray is making only his third career appearance at the event, having lost to Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round in 2022.<\/p>\n
Murray lost in the second round in Zhuhai before successive exits at the first hurdle in Beijing and Shanghai to Alex de Minaur and Roman Safiullin respectively.<\/p>\n
British number one Cameron Norrie was given a tough time by Austria\u2019s world number 169 Filip Misolic before edging into round two in the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.<\/p>\n
Norrie had to scrap through a tight first-set tie-break and was hauled back in the second set by the plucky home favourite before battling through 7-6 (7) 4-6 6-3.<\/p>\n
Like Murray, Norrie was recovering from a fruitless swing to Asia having fallen at the first stage in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as last week\u2019s Japan Open in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
Heather Watson fell in the first round of the Abierto Tampico event in Mexico, losing in three sets to Ann Li.<\/p>\n
Watson won the first set 6-4, but the American – ranked 50 places below Watson at 156 – raced through the second 6-1 and took the decider 6-3.<\/p>\n