Andy Murray and Heather Watson beat France 2-1 in Hopman Cup

Andy Murray and Heather Watson teamed up to beat France 2-1 in a closely-fought opening pool match at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

Murray launched his 2016 season with a 6-2 6-2 win over Kenny De Schepper to give Great Britain a 1-0 lead.

But Watson then went down 6-3 5-7 6-3 to Caroline Garcia in a two-hour, 17-minute marathon, which meant the match would be decided by the mixed doubles.

And the British duo prevailed, edging the French out 6-2 5-7 10-6.

After easing through the first set and breaking early in the second, it appeared Britain were coasting to victory but Murray had his serve broken in the fifth game and Watson in the 11th as France took it to a first-to-10 tie-break.

But the British pair recovered and never trailed in the decider as they made a winning start in the round-robin stage.

Murray, the hero of Britain's stunning Davis Cup triumph at the end of November, broke De Schapper in the opening game with a big return and again broke again in the fifth game with some aggressive tennis to take a 4-1 lead.

And after both held, the Scot comfortably served out the set as his all-around play was way too much for De Schepper.

The world No 2 picked up where he left off in the second set, racing to a 0-40 lead on the De Schepper serve, easily converting the break before holding his own serve to go 2-0 up.

De Schepper was being run ragged, and Murray brought up another two break points but only needed one with a perfect return from De Schepper's second serve to take a 4-1 lead.

And Murray then served out to wrap up victory inside 59 minutes.

Murray, 28, had barely played since guiding Great Britain to the Davis Cup win in November, and was pleased to have found form so quickly in the new season. 

"I played well and everything was working pretty good," he said. "I hadn't been playing well in practice at all, I had been really struggling.

"It's irrelevant really if I play like that in matches."