Murray returns to China and wins 1st-round match at Zhuhai. Linette advances to Guangzhou semifinals

Andy Murray, of Great Britain, right, shakes hands with Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, after losing to Dimitrov during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, in New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

ZHUHAI, China -

Returning to China for the first time in four years, Andy Murray won his first-round match at the Zhuhai Championships on Thursday, beating local wild card Mo Ye Cong 7-5, 6-3.

Murray, bidding for his fifth tour title in China and the first there since the Beijing Open in 2016, edged a tight first-set by breaking in the 12th game. The seventh-seeded Brit then overpowered his 23-year-old opponent in the second set to take the match in 1 hour and 42 minutes.

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The 36-year-old Murray next plays 63rd-ranked Aslan Karatsev, who defeated Matteo Arnaldi 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Fifth-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Australian Luke Saville 6-4, 6-4.

Other winners included Kimmer Coppejans, Cristian Garin and qualifiers Marc Polmans and Alex Bolt.

Top-seeded Karen Khachanov faces Australia's Bolt in the second round, while second-seeded Cameron Norrie plays Polmans on Friday.

At the Chengdu Open, American Marcos Giron defeated fifth-seeded Alexander Bublik 7-6 (6), 6-3, and Australian Jordan Thompson beat sixth-seeded compatriot Max Purcell 6-2, 7-6 (8).

Giron, ranked No. 64, will next play Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who beat Tu Li 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6), while Thompson faces Dusan Lajovic. The Serbian needed three sets to overcome Belgian wild card Zizou Bergs 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Juan Pablo Varillas eased past Chinese wild card Cui Jie 6-1, 6-3 and seventh-seeded Miomir Kecmanovic beat qualifier Benjamin Lock 6-2, 6-3.

Top-seeded players Alexander Zverev, Lorenzo Musetti, Grigor Dimitrov and Daniel Evans play their second-round matches on Friday after receiving a bye in the first round.

At the Guangzhou Open, unseeded Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan beat third-seeded Tatjana Maria 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-0 in a near 3-hour match to reach her first semifinal of a WTA 250 event since Istanbul in April 2022.

Next up for Putintseva is top-seeded Magda Linette after the Pole advanced with a 7-5, 7-6 (6) win over fifth-seeded Rebeka Masarova of Spain.

Greet Minnen defeated fourth-seeded Lucia Bronzetti of Italy 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-1. The seventh-seeded Belgian will play either Wang Xiyu or Viktoria Hruncakova, who play later Thursday, in the semifinals.