Andy Murray through to US Open second round after coming from two sets down to beat Yoshihito Nishioka

Andy Murray made a spectacular return to the grand slam singles stage with a gruelling five-set victory in the first round of the US Open.

The Scot was two sets and a break down, and faced a match point in the fourth set, against Japanese world No 49 Yoshihito Nishioka.

But it was as if Murray, playing his first major singles match since undergoing career-saving hip surgery 20 months ago, had never been away as he put himself, his coach, and his opponent through the wringer.

The 33-year-old, who usually feeds off the tension of playing in front of a packed crowd, was as flat as the atmosphere at Flushing Meadows in the opening two sets.

But the fierce competitor eventually re-emerged, battling through two tie-breaks before finishing off the Japanese baseliner 4-6 4-6 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4) 6-4 in four hours and 38 minutes.

Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev were among the interested onlookers along with fellow Brit Kyle Edmund and Murray’s brother Jamie – with the aforementioned names helping him in his quest to stage this remarkable comeback.

‘That for me was one of the things that helped. It’s rare that you have lots of players watching your match,’ he said post-match.

‘In some ways that can be a little bit distracting if you look up and you’ve got guys that are in the top five, top 10 in the world watching you and stuff.

‘But for me, I had my father-in-law there. He was up in the suite watching me. I had my brother there with his coach watching. There were a few of the British players that came out to watch and support, as well.

‘Although the atmosphere was very flat overall, at the end of the match and as I was starting to turn it around, I could at least look up and see some faces in different points of the court to give me a little bit of encouragement, which definitely, definitely helped.’

‘Physically I actually did pretty well,’ he added. ‘My toes and stuff were hurting. Actually I did pretty well for being such a long match.

‘I don’t know if that was because I maybe didn’t use up so much energy the first couple sets because I was sort of pacing myself a little bit. But I did quite well physically.’

Murray will face 20-year-old Felix Auger Aliassime, the world No 21, in the second round.