BEIJING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Former world No. 1 Andy Murray of Britain was on track of coming back after surgery by advancing to the China Open quarterfinals at the expense of compatriot Cameron Norrie here on Wednesday.
Returning from operation in late January, the 503rd-ranked Murray triumphed in full sets 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-1 in two hours and 52 minutes, earning his second straight victory for the first time on tour level after comeback.
"If you watched the end of the second set and pretty much the whole of the third set, I tried to keep the points short. I started coming to the net a lot more," commented Murray. "I did the right thing and started to shorten the points, kind of didn't make it a physical battle."
After both players maintained serves early on, Murray went ahead by registering a break, but his fellow Briton soon responded and went on to force a tiebreak, where Murray converted his fourth set point.
A forehand winner guided Norrie to a 4-2 lead in the second set. It was the 2016 champion that turned around and put the match into another tiebreak before Norrie had the last smile on his third set point.
Murray stormed to a 5-0 advantage in the decider, and never looked back by serving out for the win.
"It was a good step for me. It's great that I won the match. Whether I'd won or lost it, I was able to come out the following day and be competitive and play some good tennis," Murray pointed out.
Murray will next take on the winner between top seed Dominic Thiem and Chinese wildcard Zhang Zhizhen.
