Tuesday 3 January 2017 16:26, UK
Kyle Edmund opened his 2017 season in victorious fashion, beating Ernesto Escobedo 7-6 7-6 at the Brisbane International.
The British No 2, who starts the season ranked 45th in the world, was made to work hard for his win by the 141st-ranked Escobedo before coming through in a pair of tiebreaks.
Californian Escobedo, in the tournament after coming through qualifying, broke Edmund in the very first game but he was pegged back at 2-2 and the rest of the opening set went with serve.
Edmund stormed into a 3-0 lead in the breaker but Escobedo bounced back to tie things at 4-4 before the Briton reeled off three points to take the set.
The second set went with serve throughout, with only one break point forced, but Escobedo looked like levelling things when he stormed into a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak.
However Edmund dug deep and saved a single set point before another run of three points saw him through 8-6 to a second-round clash with sixth seed Lucas Pouille.
Eighth seed David Ferrer also moved into the second round, disappointing Australian fans with a hard-fought 6-3 7-5 win over Bernard Tomic.
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