Andy Murray did not have an easy match in his opening round of the
Swiss indoors but he was able to get it done in three sets 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4.
The Brit took time to get warmed up properly in this one and that's hardly surprising. It's been like that many times this year but ultimately he proved better and won the match which is what matters to him. The first set was quite competitive with Safiullin jumping out to an early 3-1 lead and Murray coming back to make it 3-3.
No break points were seen after that with the match going to the tiebreak. Murray was up 3-1 but gave the mini-break back with a cheap double fault. After that, Safiulin hit some great shots and took the tiebreak 7-5. The second set opened shaky for Murray who had to save a couple of break points early. Saving them proved crucial for the match as the momentum changed after that.
Not long after that, Murray was able to break his opponent to take a 5-2 lead and from there cruise to a 6-3 finish. Safiullin was not serving as well as before and he certainly wasn't hitting the ball as precisely as he was earlier. Even so, the Russian was able to break Murray early in the final set taking a 3-1 lead which seemed enough to win the match.
It wasn't because Murray stagged an incredible comeback to win 5 games in a row closing out the match 6-4. A superb comeback win for Murray who moves on to round two.