Andy Murray shook off a slow start Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open battling back to win his first match at the tournament since 2010.
Murray settled into the match after dropping the first set to Russian Evgeny Donskoy. The 25-year-old Scot grabbed control of the match breaking Donskoy twice in the second and third sets to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
The No. 3 ranked player in the world blamed his slow start on not playing since losing in the Australian Open finals.
"I have not played a match for five weeks, so can't expect to play your best tennis straightaway," Murray said.
With the win, the reigning U.S. Open champion avoided losing his opening-round at the BNP Paribas Open for a third straight year.
"I felt good before the match today, and I felt good before my match last year, as well," Murray said of his Indian Wells struggles. "So I don't know. Normally when I first played here I liked the conditions here. For the three, four years after that I always had decent results. I don't know exactly why."
Murray, an Indian Wells finalist in 2009, will look to take the next step toward another finals appearance when he takes the court against Yen-Hsun Lu on Tuesday.
