Andy Murray overcame a grueling battle against Yannick Hanfmann at the Swiss Indoors Basel to progress through the opening round in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4.

The three-time Grand Slam champion made a strong start to his campaign at the ATP 500 tournament after first-round defeats at the China Open and the Shanghai Masters.

At the beginning of the match, it looked as though Hanfmann was more in control, with Murray's first service game going to a deuce that he was narrowly able to save from turning into a break. The German player's own service game then went to a deuce at 2-1, but he too was able to hold.

From this point, it became clear that the match would be a long and difficult one as Murray went on to secure a break only for Hanfmann to break back as the Brit attempted to serve for the set.

Hanfmann then held to consolidate the break with good attacking and a strong backhand. Meanwhile, Murray received an obscenity warning as he became increasingly frustrated.

Nevertheless, the former World No. 1 turned it around to avoid a tiebreak, throwing in a surprise drop shot in his opponent's next service game to give himself a set point. He successfully converted this to close the opener after an hour and 24 minutes.

The second set was equally long, with the 36-year-old's first two service games going to a deuce. However, despite Hanfmann being the one with more chances to break early on, Murray ended up breaking the 31-year-old to get ahead.

Murray's difficulties were not over yet though, as Hanfmann fought back to break Murray when the latter tried to serve for the match. However, he ultimately won the complicated way by converting a break point in Hanfmann's next service game to progress to the next round, where he will face the winner of the match between Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Sebastian Korda.