Andy Murray has reached No. 1 in the ATP Rankings, owns 101 victories against opponents inside the Top 10, and has won 45 tour-level titles. But a hip injury kept the Scot from competition for 11 months.

You would think that the time away might plant seeds of doubt in the Scot’s mind, but after defeating former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in 77 minutes at the Nature Valley International on Monday to earn the first triumph of his comeback, Murray showed no such apprehension.

“From the amount of practice that I have had and how I have played in the matches, I’m pretty positive that maybe not this week or next week, but given a bit of time, I can still compete with the best players again,” Murray said.

Last week, Murray made his return against Aussie Nick Kyrgios, who is now 16-6 on the season. The former World No. 1 showed signs of what he’s capable of, playing gritty defence and battling all the way through to push the talented Kyrgios to a third-set tie-break.

“I think I have done pretty well,” Murray said, “I probably expected it to be harder, but I am only two matches in, as well.”

Murray’s opponent, Wawrinka, is on the same comeback boat, himself recovering from a knee injury. The Swiss was full of praise after their match on Monday, saying the Scot moved and played well in their 19th FedEx ATP Head2Head encounter (Murray leads 11-8).

“A player like Andy will never lose his tennis, that’s for sure. Being out of the Tour for so long, then it’s about putting the physical aspect again back on the match,” Wawrinka said. “It’s tough to really say where his level is because he didn’t need more today. I think in general, his game will always be there. Now it’s going to be hopefully good to see him healthy and build on that, and see how he’s going to improve the next few weeks.”

Murray will face yet another tough test early on his road back to form, when he plays No. 2 seed Kyle Edmund, with whom he practised ahead of the tournament. While the Scot said the British No. 1 label is not all that important to him, he will play the man who took the tag from him this March after a nearly 12-year run.

“It’s a really good test for me. I would have played in the space of a week, ten days, three excellent players. Obviously Stan’s had his injury problems, as well, but he’s still a top player,” Murray said. “For me to get another match against someone as good as Kyle is a really positive thing for me. Hopefully I’m going to go out and perform well and win the match and do my best to do that.”

All in all, Monday’s victory was a good step in the journey for Murray. But he knows that at World No. 156 in the ATP Rankings, there are still many steps left to return to the top of the sport.

“I guess that’s one of the problems with being a professional athlete and having competed at the top of the game. You have expectations and stuff,” Murray said. “I always thought like when I came back that I would be more pumped for every single win. But the reality was it’s the first round of an event and it was obviously great, great to get through it, but [I] obviously want to do more than that.”

Thanasi Kokkinakis showed his potential at the Miami Open presented by Itau, defeating top seed Roger Federer in the second round, before pushing veteran Fernando Verdasco to a third-set tie-break in the Round of 32. But due to injury troubles, he has gone 2-4 since, with only one of those matches (l. to Khachanov in Monte-Carlo) coming in a tour-level main draw match.

The Australian got back on track in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying on Monday, defeating No. 28 seed Marcelo Arevalo 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.

“It wasn’t pretty. It was pretty ugly, I came out really flat,” Kokkinakis told Wimbledon.com. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to play a couple of days ago [due to a quad strain]. I just went point by point and, hopefully, the body held up. It was ugly, but I got there in the end so I’ll take it.”

The 22-year-old will have a chance to move into the final round of qualifying against Pole Kamil Majchrzak, who beat Indian Sumit Nagal 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour. But Kokkinakis was not the only Aussie to advance on the first day of play.

Former World No. 17 Bernard Tomic, who reached the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-finals and the Round of 16 twice more (2013, 2016), beat Italian Matteo Donati 7-6(1), 6-3 in one hour. Tomic is attempting to compete in the grass-court Grand Slam’s main draw for the ninth consecutive year.

The Australian was not the only player who has enjoyed success at the event to move through. Former World No. 8 singles player and 2010 Wimbledon doubles champion Jurgen Melzer overcame a second-set hiccup to beat Slovak Jozef Kovalik 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2. The left-handed Austrian, who has played the singles main draw on the London grass 14 times, next plays Japan’s Go Soeda, who beat No. 9 seed Hugo Dellien 6-4, 6-2. Another former Top 10 player in the ATP Rankings, Ernests Gulbis took down 2012 Wimbledon Boys’ Singles champion Filip Peliwo 7-5, 6-2. 

Leading the #NextGenATP charge on Monday was No. 11 seed Hubert Hurkacz, who came back to defeat Frenchman Kenny De Schepper 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5. Michael Mmoh beat compatriot Noah Rubin 7-6(6), 6-2, and another American, Reilly Opelka, ousted countryman Mitchell Krueger 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The top seed and fellow #NextGenATP player, Jaume Munar, suffered a tough loss. Argentine Andrea Collarini beat the Spaniard 7-6(8), 5-7, 10-8. A familiar face at Wimbledon, Dustin Brown — who beat Rafael Nadal at the tournament in 2015 — also fell. Stefan Kozlov beat the German 6-3, 6-1.

If former World No. 1 Andy Murray is rusty after missing 11 months due to a hip injury, he is not showing it. One week after pushing talented Aussie Nick Kyrgios to a final-set tie-break in his return match at the Fever-Tree Championships, the Scot made a statement at the Nature Valley International.

Murray defeated former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3 on Monday to set a second-round matchup against British No. 1 Kyle Edmund.

“Very happy to get the win. I thought the first set I played well, second set was a little bit patchy at times, a bit nervous towards the end,” Murray said. “Obviously when you’ve not played for the best part of a year, closing out the match against someone like Stan, who I’ve had lots of great matches with — tough, tough guy to play against — was tough. But delighted to get the win.”

The 31-year-old’s 2017 season came to an end after losing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals. And after deciding against a comeback at the start of the year in Australia, Murray underwent hip surgery. The Scot got off to a quick return on the grass, despite the tough draw against a former Top 5 foe like Wawrinka, breaking the Swiss star four times to triumph. 

“I looked at someone like a [Juan Martin] del Potro, who has come back from multiple injuries and some of the draws you get are really difficult,” Murray said. “You have to just try to accept it, try and deal with it as best as you can and hopefully start winning some of those matches soon. I didn’t know if that was going to come today, but I was okay with it. It’s good to get a competitive match against a top player. “

The World No. 156’s movement looked sharp in his second match back. Especially in the first set, Murray did a good job retrieving many aggressive shots by Wawrinka deep in the court, keeping the Swiss from hammering away at short balls and putting pressure on him to go for more, leading to unforced errors.

But when Wawrinka began to find more of a rhythm in the second set, Murray had no issues being more aggressive. While up a break at 4-3, Murray saved the only four break points he faced in the match, all by taking initiative in the rallies. 

Wawrinka is also on the comeback trail, having missed the end of last season after Wimbledon due to a knee injury. This was the 16-time tour-level champion’s ninth tournament of the season.

Murray has won both of his previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against Edmund. But those matches were two years ago. The 23-year-old has since climbed into the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings. Nevertheless, he’s impressed with what he has seen from Murray.

“I think [at] Queen’s he played really pretty well for his first match, for sure,” Edmund said on Monday. “He’s looking good, like, pretty normal to me.”

Murray has been impressed with his compatriot, too.

“Kyle’s been fantastic. Not just this year, but the end of last year as well. He’s a great player, he’s improving all the time,” Murray said. “I’m expecting a tough one. I’ll try and play my best.”

In other action in the bottom half of the draw, American Jared Donaldson edged #NextGenATP countryman Taylor Fritz 6-7(8), 6-3, 7-6(3) to set a meeting with third seed Denis Shapovalov.

The 21-year-old landed 11 aces and won 81 per cent of first-serve points to book his place in the second round. Donaldson is bidding to reach his second tour-level quarter final this season after a semi-final run at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in February.

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Did You Know?
Andy Murray is making just his second appearance at the Nature Valley International. The former World No. 1 reached the quarter-finals on his debut in 2006 at Nottingham, losing in three sets to Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Less than a year ago, Borna Coric advanced to the semi-finals of the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals. And while due to his age, the 21-year-old is no longer considered a #NextGenATP player, the Croatian made waves in the tennis world on Sunday when he defeated nine-time champion Roger Federer to triumph at the Gerry Weber Open.

Another 2017 Milan qualifier, #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, was not surprised.

“They are all human. They have all been beaten before. Obviously they are legends at this game, at this sport, to be where they are at at their age,” Shapovalov said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a sport and they can lose, anyone can lose on a given day. Borna’s had a really good year, has played some unbelievable tennis.

“It wasn’t that big of a shocker to me that he beat Roger. Obviously it’s always tough to beat a guy at that level, but like I said, Borna has been playing unbelievable tennis this year, so I’m happy for him.”

If anything, Coric’s win motivates Shapovalov, as does all of the success current #NextGenATP players have. #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, for example, has beaten five players inside the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings in 2018, helping him climb nearly 60 spots since the beginning of the year to a career-best No. 35.

“It motivates the rest of us to keep working harder, try to do what Borna did last week, try to improve, try to get good results,” said Shapovalov, who is the No. 3 seed at the Nature Valley International. “I feel like that’s kind of been the trend nowadays. One guy has some success and then you see another guy coming up and it’s just kind of motivating each other to do better, and I feel like it’s going to keep going like this.”

In a way, it’s a glimpse into the future for the #NextGenATP stars. Four #NextGenATP players are currently inside the Top 35 of the ATP Rankings.

“Even though they are so dominant at the sport, it’s something that we have the potential to do,” Shapovalov said. “It’s honestly pretty cool to have a group of young guys like this with such talent and such a high level coming up together.”

Shapovalov, the 2016 Wimbledon Boys’ Singles champion, will now look to make his own mark on the grass in Eastbourne. After reaching the semi-finals in Madrid and Delray Beach, the World No. 26 seeks his first ATP World Tour title. And while he holds just a 1-4 tour-level record on the surface, he feels it suits his game well.

“I feel like I have a pretty aggressive game style, big-serving. I like to come to the net, so that kind of suits the grass,” Shapovalov said. “I feel like potentially in a couple of years it’s going to be a really good surface for me.”

The 19-year-old left-hander will begin his campaign against another 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals qualifier, Jared Donaldson. And while it was Coric who shone brightly last week, he hopes that now, it is his turn.

“I feel like my game is really coming along,” Shapovalov said. “I feel pretty ready for this week. Hopefully I can do some damage at this tournament. That would be great.”

David Ferrer snapped a three-match losing streak to reach the second round at the Nature Valley International, beating qualifier Matteo Berrettini 7-5, 6-3 on Monday.

The former World No. 3, who suffered opening-round losses in each of his three ATP World Tour appearances on European clay in May, converted each of his five break point chances and won 75 per cent of second-serve return points to advance after 86 minutes. Ferrer is bidding to reach his second tour-level quarter-final of the season, after a semi-final run at the ASB Classic in January.

The 31-year-old will meet Mikhail Kukushkin or #NextGenATP Australian Alex de Minaur for a place in the last eight. Ferrer leads Kukushkin 7-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series and is yet to meet 19-year-old De Minaur.

John Millman levelled his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Gilles Muller at 2-2 after a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 victory over the World No. 60.

Millman, who fell to Novak Djokovic in the Fever-Tree Championships first round last week, won 41 of 48 first-serve points and saved the only break point he faced en route to victory. Muller drops to 1-3 on grass this season after winning 11 of 13 matches on the surface in 2017.

In a meeting of former champions, 2015 titlist Denis Istomin overcame 2011 winner Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4). Istomin, who improves to 17-7 in Eastbourne, notched his 10th match win of the season after two hours and 28 minutes. The World No. 91 will next face fourth seed Marco Cecchinato after reducing his FedEx ATP Head2Head series deficit against Seppi to 4-7.

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Did You Know?
Only three men have ever won back-to-back titles at this ATP World Tour 250 grass-court event. Richard Gasquet was the first to retain his title (2005-2006), before Ivo Karlovic (2007-2008) and Feliciano Lopez (2013-2014) also achieved the feat.

Defending champion Yuichi Sugita notched his sixth consecutive win at the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya, defeating Argentina’s Guido Pella 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 on Monday.

The Japanese No. 2, who lifted his maiden ATP World Tour title at the event in 2017, saved nine of ten break points and withstood 13 aces to advance after two hours and two minutes. Sugita, who defeated Dominic Thiem at the Gerry Weber Open last week, improves to 4-2 on grass this season.

“It is a big pressure [to be defending champion]. I want to defend the points and the title, but after [losing] the second set I just wanted to enjoy the tournament because I have good memories here… I am really happy to win today,” said Sugita.

The 29-year-old will face Pierre-Hugues Herbert for a place in the quarter-finals. The Frenchman defeated Federico Delbonis 7-6(5), 6-4 in one hour and 47 minutes.

Dusan Lajovic needed an hour to book his spot in the second round, defeating Filip Horansky 6-3, 6-3. The eighth seed won 75 per cent of service points and converted three of eight break points. Lajovic will face Nikoloz Basilashvili for a quarter-final spot.

Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis set a meeting with 2017 runner up and top seed Adrian Mannarino after a 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 victory over Evgeny Donskoy. Berankis saved all five break points he faced and converted each of his three break opportunities to secure a clinical one-hour, 52-minute win.

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Did You Know?
Yuichi Sugita won the inaugural Turkish Airlines Open Antalya in 2017. The World No. 45 defeated David Ferrer in the second round before a straight-sets win over Adrian Mannarino in the championship match.