Andy Murray impressively beat Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (9-7) at the China Open to set up a second round tie against fellow Briton Cameron Norrie.
Murray, 32, faced a tough test against world number 13 Berrettini, who reached last month's US Open semi-finals.
The Scot came back from a break down in each set for his biggest singles win since returning from hip surgery in January.
"It was a tight match and I thought I did pretty well," said Murray.
"Hopefully, I can have a good run here. That was a good start for me.
"It's a bit of progress for me again this week which is good. I feel like the progress has been quite consistent and, hopefully, that keeps going through until the end of the year."
Murray played at a high level against Berrettini and showed the battling qualities which are such a feature of his game.
He broke the 23-year-old, who was serving for the first set, before going on to dominate the tie-break.
Berrettini went 2-0 up in the second set but Murray again pegged him back to level and take the match following another tie-break.
Overall, Murray got 69% of his first serves in, winning 75% of those points and he also saved five out of seven break points.