Former world No 1 Andy Murray reflected on his physical struggle and mental strength after notching-up his first win over a top-10 player in more than three years on Monday. The wildcard entrant beat fifth seed Alexander Zverev in a gritty three-setter at the Western & Southern Open.

Murray was facing defeat when Zverev served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but he won three straight games for a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory and a place in the last 16 of the tournament moved this year from Cincinnati to New York to be held in the same quarantine bubble.

Murray closed out the match with back-to-back winners, the last a backhand up the line on match point. It was his first top-10 victory since he beat Japan’s Kei Nishikori at Roland Garros in 2017. Since then he has undergone two hip surgeries and competed in just two matches against top-10 players.

In the next round he’ll face big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.

In the opening round, the Scottish player made a triumphant ATP comeback defeating Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-1 in his first match of 2020.

With no spectators in attendance, Murray had said he missed the boost that fans can provide, and he had to make a conscious effort early in the third set to energise himself with fist pumps and the like.

After another tough victory in New York, he opened up about his struggles to stay positive after all the injury setbacks in the last few years.

“If you watched my practice sets and stuff and the build-up to the tournament, you would have said, ‘No’. I was getting belted by everyone. That had also been the case when I had been playing practice matches and practice sets back home. Couldn’t win one. “But practice doesn’t really matter. It’s what obviously you do on the match court,” he was quoted as saying by the ATP website after his win.

Murray won the Cincinnati Masters in 2008 and 2011, but the former world No 1 is now ranked 129th after a string of injuries, including a pelvic injury at the Davis Cup last November that, combined with the ATP’s pandemic shutdown, kept him out of competition until this week.

Murray got philosophical as he spoke about how he often appears to be negative on court, revealing his inner belief that has helped him mount the comeback he has after a hip injury that all but ended his career at the Australian Open last year.

“Sometimes I think outwardly if you looked at me, if you’re watching me on the court and you’re watching from the stands, you might think that I get really down on myself and that I’m very negative,” Murray said.

“Outwardly I definitely am. But I think inside me I have a very, very strong self-belief and know that I can win matches like that. Although it doesn’t always appear that way when you’re watching me on the court, I always believe, even when outwardly it seems like I might be flagging or being negative,” he added.