Andy Murray battles form and fitness to defeat Stan Wawrinka

It has been five years since Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray battled against each other in their fateful French Open semi-final in 2017, then two of the top three players in the world. They played for five bruising sets over four-and-a-half hours and although Wawrinka advanced, nobody really won. Murray left the match with serious hip injury, then two days later Wawrinka departed with a career-altering knee injury. After numerous surgeries and one metal hip, neither has fully recovered their levels.

On Monday afternoon, they began their 22nd meeting in far more understated circumstances, a first-round match in the secluded suburbs of Cincinnati. In the arduous, jittery match that followed, as both men battled their bodies as well as each other, Murray overcame a bout of cramping and a break in the third set as he drew upon his typical grit to emerge as the victor, 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5.

“When you’re cramping, you need to try to relax because you don’t want to be playing long points,” Murray said. “Whenever I had the chance, I tried to play aggressive, get him defending a little bit. Because on this court, with the speed of the court, how lively it is, I was having to do lots of running when I wasn’t doing too much with the ball so going for my shots worked for me.”

It marked an essential win after what has been a difficult period for Murray. His grass-court season had started with an extremely promising run to the final of Stuttgart. After the abdominal injury he suffered in the tight final with Matteo Berrettini then the second round loss at Wimbledon to a red-lining John Isner, he immediately travelled to the United States in search of wins and points to build his ranking.

They did not follow. Murray reached one quarter-final