Andy Murray survives five match points to break trophy drought

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It’s been 15 long months since he lifted a trophy and Andy Murray certainly did it the hard way.

The Scot survived five match points against Tommy Robredo in the Shenzhen Open final Sunday before closing out a grueling three-set victory in two and a half hours.

Following his 2013 triumph at Wimbledon, Murray had back surgery later that year and has struggled to match those heroics this year.

He opted to play at the inaugural even in China and after battling to the final found himself a set down and trailing 2-6 in the second set tiebreaker.

Showing typical fighting quality he saved the initial four match points and another at 7-6 down, before claiming the tiebreaker to level.

The third set was one-sided as Murray won 5-7 7-6 6-1 and moves up to 10th in the race to make the ATP Tour Finals in London in November, with the top eight qualifying.

“It’s been a long time since I won a tournament,” Murray told the official ATP Tour website.

“The way that the match was won doesn’t happen very often. It’s rare to win a match like that. I was very close to losing.

“It was an emotional week for me. I managed to fight my way through it, win the title, and hopefully I can win another one before the end of the year.”

Murray will stay in China for the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Beijing and the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, hoping to reach the finals for a seventh year in a row.

He was claiming his 29th career title, the first since beating Novak Djokovic in last year’s Wimbledon final.

Robredo was also looking for his first title since last year and was disappointed to lose out after having so many chances.

“In a match like today that was so close, it’s tough to accept it. But Andy did a great job. He was pushing right till the end and in the end, he deserved it,” the Spaniard added.