(Tennis news) Andy Murray defeated Tomas Etcheverry 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-4 in a match that lasted three hours and 12 minutes to progress into the second round of Indian Wells. The Scottish player had 20 break points out of which 16 were saved by Etcheverry in a closely contested match. In the first tie-break, the Argentine was sharper of the two winning it 7-5 and went on to take a -1 lead in the second set.

However, Murray saved that break point before taking the second set. Both players had the opportunity to take the deciding set, Etcheverry had two break points at 4-3 but Murray served well and secured the decisive break in the next game when his Argentine opponent committed a double fault.

Speaking after the match, Andy Murray said “I really felt like I was in the driving seat for much of the match. I was creating lots of opportunities but I just wasn’t able to capitalise. I made some poor decisions at times, but in the end did really well to get through that. I’m not going to keep winning every three-set match that I play, but it’s been an amazing start to the year.

“It was still a good effort to turn that around as the first set was extremely long and I was thinking ‘here we go again’. This is a place where I haven’t always played my best tennis so I was really happy that I managed to turn that around.” Murray will now face Spain’s world number 17 Pablo Carreno Busta in the second round.

Also read: Emma Raducanu defeats Danka Kovinic 6-2 6-3 in the opening match of Indian Wells