Murray had stormed through his opening match against Hyeon Chung, needing an hour and 10 minutes to ease past the former top 20 player. He faced another first-time opponent in Yunchaokete, who came through qualifying to reach the second round.
The second seed took an early break to lead 4-2 but the world No 173 wasn’t going to let Murray run away with another match and broke straight back. Murray had a set point on Yunchaokete’s serve at 5-4 but couldn’t convert it and grew frustrated at the back end of the set.
“I don’t know what’s going on with my game,” the world No 43 shouted. But he managed to regroup and stormed through the tiebreak to take the opener 7-6(1). It was a tough opening set, lasting just a minute less than Murray’s entire opening round.
Yunchaokete continued to fend off the 36-year-old as he saved two break points early in the second set. Murray kept venting his frustration as he failed to convert another break point on the qualifier’s serve.
There was a brief break when Murray was 0-30 up at 3-3 as a spectator fainted. But play quickly resumed and the Brit was finally able to get a long-awaited break. Murray avoided getting involved in a cat-and-mouse game as he saved a break back point and managed to close out a straight-set victory.
“It is hard to put numbers on it, but yes, I would fancy myself against a lot of them. Last year I won against Nick Kyrgios who made the final of Wimbledon, I won against Stefanos Tsitsipas – it is probably not his favourite surface but he is one of the best players in the world,” he said.
“And I was a set all with Matteo Berrettini in the final of Stuttgart, who is quite clearly in the top few grass-court players before I hurt my abs.”
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