Former World No. 1 Andy Murray had to fight for it, but the Scot began his Asian swing with a victory on Tuesday at the Shenzhen Open.

The 2014 champion led 6-3, 6-7(3), 4-2 when Chinese wild card Zhizhen Zhang retired down 3-6, 7-6(3), 2-4. Murray saved eight of 10 break points and won nearly 60 per cent of his second-serve return points.

“I felt he played very well after the first set,” Murray said. “I just managed to fight hard, stay tough in the beginning of the third set and unfortunately for him, the cramps started. It was very difficult conditions.”

It was Murray’s first match since the US Open, when he fell to Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in the second round. The Brit will next meet top seed and defending champion David Goffin.

Canadian Denis Shapovalov led the #NextGenATP charge, winning a rain-interrupted first-round match 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 over Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. The match was suspended for more than three hours.

“I think once we came back from the break, we played better,” said Shapovalov, who will next play Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka. “It’s been tough conditions here today, but I felt much better on my return to the court.”

#NextGenATP Aussie Alex de Minaur also advanced, needing only 56 minutes to move past Japan’s Yuichi Sugita 6-3, 6-0. De Minaur will next meet American Mackenzie McDonald, who was leading 5-7, 6-0, 5-0 when Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko retired.

Indian qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan knocked out Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1 in 90 minutes to set up a second-round matchup with fourth seed Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Read More: Tsitsipas, Dzumhur Reach New Heights In Shenzhen

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Damir Dzumhur started their Shenzhen Open experience at another level on Tuesday. The second and fourth seed visited the Ping An International Finance Centre and its observatory floor at 550 metres on Tuesday morning. The Ping An International Finance Centre was completed in 2017 and is currently the fourth tallest building in the world.

“It was an extraordinary experience for me. Hopefully I can make it to every tall building like this in the world. It’s one of my bucket list goals in life,” Tsitsipas said.

Greece’s #NextGenATP star is playing in the ATP World Tour 250-level tournament for the first time and still has plenty he wants to achieve in 2018.

“I’m pumped. I’m working hard to get to my first title this year. Hopefully I play some good tennis this week,” he said.

The 20-year-old Greek is in 13^th place in the ATP Race To London. The top eight will qualify for the prestigious season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November at The O2 in London.

Dzumhur, a three-time ATP World Tour titlist, reached the Shenzhen semi-finals last year and enjoyed the experience on Tuesday.

“It was really great. First going up this high and then standing at those windows where you can see what is down under yourself, it’s quite scary,” he said. “It was a really great experience. We played a little bit of tennis. We had a lot of fun.”

#NextGenATP Canadian lucky loser Felix Augur-Aliassime knocked out Chinese wild card Yibing Wu 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1 in two hours and 24 minutes on Tuesday at the Chengdu Open. He will next play second seed and last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung of South Korea.

South African qualifier Lloyd Harris recorded his first match win on the ATP World Tour by beating fifth seed Gael Monfils of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in 88 minutes. The World No. 129 will now face Australian qualifier Bernard Tomic. Last week, Monfils captured his sixth ATP Challenger Tour title in Kaohsiung (d. Kwon).

American Sam Querrey saved two set points in the first-set tie-break, from 4/6, in a 7-6(6), 6-1 victory over last year’s semi-finalist Guido Pella of Argentina in 75 minutes. He will now face third-seeded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in the second round.

Malek Jaziri, who reached his first ATP World Tour final in May at the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open (l. to Daniel), saved one set point at 5/6 in the first set tie-break of his 7-6(7), 1-6, 6-2 victory over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, the 2017 finalist. He’ll next challenge fourth seed Adrian Mannarino of France.

Sixth-seeded Australian Matthew Ebden lost just five of his first-service points and struck nine aces in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Evgeny Donskoy of Russia in 75 minutes. Elsewhere, Russia’s Mikhail Kukushkin defeated eighth-seeded American Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-3 in 87 minutes.