Australian Open: Joy for Andy Murray, Heather Watson, Dan Evans and Emma Raducanu

The great and the good of tennis were hastily gathered together to make a tribute video for Murray in 2019 after he tearfully laid bare the extent of his hip problems on the eve of the tournament and announced he was considering retiring.

But, even as the video was playing, Murray, who had somehow defied the pain to push Roberto Bautista Agut to five sets in a raucous atmosphere, was looking ahead to his imminent resurfacing operation and the hope that he might be able to come back.

It has been a slow and frustrating process but the 34-year-old is finally able to train consistently and a first ATP Tour final for more than two years in Sydney last week was an indication that just maybe he can be a factor on the big stage again.

His scalps last week included big-hitting Georgian Basilashvili after a three-hour battle, and it took Murray three hours and 52 minutes here to come through 6-1 3-6 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-4 and record his first victory in Melbourne for five years.

Murray said: “It was a brutal match in Sydney. We played for three hours over three sets. He hits the ball huge from the back of the court. I had to do a lot of running and a lot of defending.

“He is not the sort of guy you want to see next to your name in the draw too often. Obviously there was a little bit of confidence from the win last week and thankfully I managed to get over the line today.”

Murray added: “I will hopefully keep improving. There are things in my game I can definitely do better.

“I would love to have a deep run here, if possible. It is something I have not had in one of the slams since I came back from injury and it is something that is motivating me.

“I have played some of my best tennis here over the years. I feel comfortable here and I hope I can do it here this tournament.”

Now renamed John Cain Arena, Melbourne Park’s third court has been the scene of many Murray scraps over the years.

Initially this looked it might not be one as Basilashvili struggled to find the court and Murray, with little effort required, raced to the first set in a little over 20 minutes.

The 21st seed, who Murray also defeated at Wimbledon last year despite a dramatic third-set collapse, mis-hit one serve so badly that it flew high into the stands without bouncing.

But Basilashvili is a man entirely committed to the game-plan of hitting the ball as hard as possible at every opportunity and swings from the sublime to the ridiculous are par for the course.

The second set saw Basilashvili lock his radar in and break the Murray serve three times on his way to levelling the match.

The third set was a one-act melodrama featuring searing winners, errant smashes, wild errors and an awful lot of Murray scampering around well behind the baseline trying to force Basilashvili to self-destruct.

The Scot got the better of three straight breaks and clinched it on his fourth chance as Basilashvili threw in a 25th unforced error of the set.

Murray clung on in the fourth as he tried to finish the job, recovering from 2-4 and saving a set point at 4-5. He fought back from 1-5 in the tie-break as well but paid for a couple of loose forehands as Basilashvili forced a decider.

The five-time Australian Open finalist quickly moved into a 3-0 lead in the fifth but back came Basilashvili once again to level at 4-4 only for Murray to finally find a way across the line.

He will take on Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel in the second round.

Heather Watson gained her first grand slam victory in a year with a three-set success over Mayar Sherif of Egypt in the first round.

Wins have been hard to come by recently for Watson but she ended a seven-match losing run dating back to August in Adelaide last week and carried that confidence into Melbourne.

She is now ranked down at 94, 32 places lower than Sherif, who has been heading in the other direction.

But Watson played a fine match to win 6-3 5-7 6-2, thumping 40 winners and putting aside the disappointment of losing the second set.

Dan Evans joined Watson and Murray in the second round with a 6-4 6-3 6-0 success against David Goffin.

Evans has begun the season in fine form while former top-10 star Goffin has been plagued by injury troubles and retired with a knee issue during a match against Murray in Sydney last week.

Evans began the season with three victories for Great Britain at the ATP Cup before reaching the semi-finals in Sydney and will have high hopes of a good run here.

Emma Raducanu shone at a grand slam again as she marked her Australian Open debut with victory in the battle of the US Open champions against Sloane Stephens.

The 19-year-old has found wins hard to come by since her extraordinary success in New York in September but, back on the big stage, Raducanu came up with the right formula again to claim a 6-0 2-6 6-1 victory.

She lost just four points in a startling first set that admittedly was woeful from Stephens before the American hit her stride in the second.

That set up a first decider at this level for Raducanu, and she could not have handled it any better, keeping her cool and striking the ball with confidence to clinch victory after an hour and 45 minutes.

Iga Swiatek won 11 games in a row to defeat Britain’s Harriet Dart.

Dart came through qualifying for the third time here in four years, and for the third time found herself on Rod Laver Arena facing one of the big names.

She suffered the dreaded double bagel against Maria Sharapova in 2019 before a much better performance against Simona Halep the following year.

Dart, ranked 123, made a good start against seventh seed Swiatek, leading 3-1, but the Pole began to cut out the errors and, despite not doing too much wrong in the second set, the British No 3 failed to win another game.

The Nick Kyrgios show returned to the Australian Open as the maverick showman defeated Britain’s Liam Broady at Melbourne Park.

Kyrgios has recently recovered from Covid-19 and was playing his first match since September but his full bag of tricks was on show in a 6-4 6-4 6-3 victory.

In front of a raucous crowd he set the tone with an underarm serve through his legs in his first service game and carried on from there.

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