Andy Murray vs. Illya Marchenko: Score and Reaction from 2017 Australian Open

Andy Murray eased into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday as he beat Illya Marchenko in straight sets, but the world No. 1 was made to work for his 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory.

The Ukrainian particularly caused problems when he went a break up in the second set, but the Scot responded well to the setback, and after edging out his opponent in a hard fought tiebreaker, he made short work of him in the third.

Indeed, Murray was out on court for two hours and 47 minutes in a scrappy, error-laden affair—hardly the ideal start he would have been hoping for.

Serving into the sun, Murray struggled as he kicked off the first set, as BBC Sport's David Law demonstrated:

Marchenko responded in kind in his first service game, though, and with a double-fault and several unforced errors of his own, he too was broken at the first attempt.

After the world No. 93 had won a pair of lengthy rallies in the following game, Murray looked to be in trouble once again, but a pair of aces helped him hold serve, and yet more mistakes from Marchenko helped the Scot race to a 5-2 lead.

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The Ukrainian refused to bow out of the set so easily, however, and a pair of back-to-back down-the-line winners helped him break back on the way to levelling the scores at 5-5 with the increasingly frustrated Murray.

Nevertheless, the three-time Grand Slam winner was able to emerge on top, with yet more unforced errors proving costly for Marchenko.

It was Murray who began the second set on shaky ground, though, as he allowed his opponent to take a healthy lead, per Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times:

A fortunate hold for the five-time Australian Open finalist—which required four deuce attempts and a successful challenge—and a break back helped him level the scores at 4-4.

The pair made their way to a tiebreaker as each produced the occasional moment of quality—an exquisite lob from Murray here, a powerful forehand winner from Marchenko there—in an otherwise disjointed and somewhat unedifying affair.

Murray was eventually able to take the second set in the narrow tiebreaker, but from there, he had little trouble in securing the match against the flagging Marchenko. 

BBC Sport's Kheredine Idessane suggested the heat on court did not help matters:

The Ukrainian finished the contest having made 62 unforced errors compared with the Scot's 27, per the tournament's official website.

Per BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko, Murray was quizzed on his first tournament as the top seed, courtesy of his world ranking:

"

With the guys that have been on the Tour the last 10 or 12 years, three of the best players to have played the game, it's been tough.

I kept working and trying to find ways to get better. Having those guys around me has helped a lot. I finally managed to get there.

I've never won here, I'm hoping to go one better this year.

"

Per the New York Times' Christopher Clarey, he added:

Murray will face qualifier Andrey Rublev in the next round.

While the 19-year-old Russian shouldn't pose too much of a problem, Murray will need to improve significantly over the course of the tournament if he's to win it, and a convincing performance against the rising star will go a long way to helping him do so.