Andy Murray shows glimpses of best form in win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina at the Gijon Open

Andy Murray dealt with an early setback to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-5 6-2 in the first round of the Gijon Open. Murray's appearance in north-east Spain was his first on the tour since September's Laver Cup in London, where he had lost both his singles and doubles matches.

Ad Sitting 48th in the ATP rankings, Murray is targeting a strong end to the season to keep his ranking as high as possible, which should in theory allow him to get a better draw at the Australian Open, 2023's first major. Laver Cup'Too soon' — Federer will not have retirement ceremony at Basel hometown event3 HOURS AGO Things didn't go his way in the opening skirmishes in Gijon however, with the Briton being broken to 15 in the very first game by Davidovich Fokina, who was quickly taking to his home backing.

The rest of the set continued on serve until Murray began a superb fightback at 4-2 down, reeling off three games to go into a 5-4 lead. A tie-break looked imminent at 6-5 to Murray, but Davidovich Fokina faltered on his final service game of the set, allowing Murray to seize his third set point of the game, and with it the set.

'Too soon' — Federer will not have retirement ceremony at Basel hometown event ‘I’m more stress-free’ – Gauff reveals how Twitch helped improve her tennis Allowing Djokovic to play Australian Open ‘would be a slap in the face’, says Andrews Could the Spaniard recover from that setback? Immediately it looked like the answer was no, as Murray charged into a 3-0 lead in the second, retrieving and moving well on the slow indoor surface, whilst giving his opponent very few looks on his own serve. And at 4-1 came the double break that the Scot was no doubt keen to get his hands on, giving him what appeared to be a