Andy Murray battles past Yannick Hanfmann in tightly-contested first round Swiss Indoors encounter in Basel

Andy Murray overcame Yannick Hanfmann 7-5 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors in Basel on Monday.

The 36-year-old battled through a closely-fought encounter to win in straight sets after two hours and 18 minutes.

He is now two wins away from becoming the fifth player in history to record 500 hard-court victories in the Open era, after Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal.

Murray started well and raced to a 40-0 lead but took his time to wrap up the opening game, needing nine minutes to close it out.

The former world No. 1 made hard work of it again in his next service game and nearly half an hour had passed by the time he made it 2-1 on serve in a delicate start to the match.

Hanfmann levelled matters at 2-2 before Murray once again took the lead, and then broke the 31-year-old for 4-2.

Murray held well to take a three-game advantage as he began to pull away from his opponent, but Hanfmann bounced back from a disappointing period in the match with three straight games to pull level again at 5-5.

However, with over an hour already played in the opening set, Murray won the next two games to take the lead after 84 minutes.

The second set was as tightly contested as the first.

Murray faced eight break points overall and when he had the chance to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second set, was broken.

But he won 43 per cent of his return points and broke Hanfmann’s serve four times from six attempts in a consistent performance which helped him eventually overcome the German and end a three-match losing streak.

Murray will play Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the second round on Wednesday after he beat eighth seed Sebastian Korda 6-3 1-6 6-3.

British No. 1 Cameron Norrie came through a three-set clash with Filip Misolic at the Vienna Open.

Norrie won 7-6(7) 4-6 6-3 and will next face fifth seed Alexander Zverev.

Norrie and Murray are both part of Great Britain’s unchanged squad for the Davis Cup Finals.

The pair, plus Dan Evans and Jack Draper, will take on Novak Djokovic’s Serbia in November’s quarter-final.

Great Britain beat Australia, Switzerland and France to reach the last eight, and will be looking to seal their first title since 2015 when Murray helped GB overcome Belgium in the final.

The finals take place in Malaga, Spain from November 21 to 26.