Andy Murray marked his first Grand Slam tournament in 14 months with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 win over Australia's James Duckworth at the US Open on Monday.
Murray, the 2012 champion in New York and playing just his fifth tournament of the year after undergoing hip surgery in January, last featured in a major at Wimbledon in 2017.
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Murray, whose world ranking has slumped to 382, goes on to face Fernando Verdasco, the Spanish 31st seed after seeing off the error-prone Duckworth, ranked at 448.
"He was serving big in the first set and the ball was flying around," said 31-year-old Murray who only returned to the tour in June.
"But I started to get into the return games, stood back a little more and that gave me more time to get in the rallies and find my range with my ground strokes."
At 3hr and 17mins on the new Louis Armstrong Stadium, it was Murray's longest match since his comeback in a reassuring indication of his fitness.
