Andy Murray reaches major career milestone after surviving early Indian Wells scare | Tennis | Sport

Once again, though, the tide shifted as Daniel won the first two games by making the most of his first serve and piling the pressure back on his much more experienced opponent.

Things could have got much worse for Murray after inexplicably missing a simple net shot on his own serve, but he rallied to hold the fifth game and keep himself in the tie at only 3-2 down.

And then he got the break that he needed, taking advantage of some wayward serving from Daniel to level the scores, before holding his own to spark another huge cheer from the American crowd as he moved into the lead.

Murray was given the opportunity to break and serve for the match, but missed two simple shots on his favoured backhand and was visibly frustrated with himself for not taking the deciding set by the scruff of the neck.

He looked like he might be broken in the ninth game, but Daniel failed to convert a break point and Murray once again showed guts and no small amount of class to pull off a monumental hold of serve.

From there Daniel’s spirit was broken and, despite missing out on the first two, Murray wasn’t going to pass up on the third match point he was presented with to secure safe passage into the second round.