Andy Murray, who last played in the singles competition back in 2017, makes winning return in men's doubles competition
Friday 5 July 2019 09:37, UK
Andy Murray made a long-awaited return to Wimbledon as his men's doubles campaign with Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert began with a comfortable first-round win on Thursday.
Murray and Herbert battled back from a set down to defeat Romanian Marius Copil and France's Ugo Humbert 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-0.
"It was nice. I was a little bit nervous at the start but obviously got better as the match went on. Really nice atmosphere at the end, the new roof is brilliant. The crowd make a bit more noise it seems. It was great to get the win," said Murray.
"As the match went on we started to get more comfortable with each other on the court, we were reading each other's games better and things were happening naturally. Hopefully we'll keep getting better."
Murray got a great reception when he walked out on the court, although a lot of fans had taken a break between matches.
Things did not go to plan early on for Murray and Herbert, with both men dropping serve as their opponents, Humbert and Copil, won the opening set.
But Murray and Herbert made a sharper start to the second set with a break of the Humbert serve and grew in confidence to level the match.
The pair continued to improve and turned the match around with four-time Grand Slam doubles champion Herbert full of confidence on serve. Another break of the Humbert serve in the third game was enough to put them on the brink of victory.
With the light fading, it was announced the match would be concluded under the new Court One roof and when they returned a flick of the Herbert racket helped the pair break in the opening game and they soon extended their advantage with a second break of serve before racing to victory.
They have a stern test next against sixth seeds Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor from Croatia, but the most important thing is that Murray is back.
The Scot will also be taking part in the mixed doubles competition with partner Serena Williams.
The pair have been drawn against Germany's Andreas Mies and Chilean Alexa Guarachi in the first round, which could take place on Friday.
