Scottish tennis hero Andy Murray triumphantly returned to the Wimbledon singles stage as he dumped out 24th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili — but not without a dramatic finale that had a nation watching through their fingers.
Murray had pulled out of the Australian Open with coronavirus before then skipping Roland Garros to focus on The Championships.
And despite passing up on two match points and sensationally throwing away a third set that looked almost certain, he banished years of injury hell by eventually sealing a 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory after winning just twice at tour level all year.
It started swimmingly as Murray delivered three rapid aces in his very first game.
The opening set followed the pattern of serve and we seemed destined for a tiebreak with neither player keen on blinking first.
But the Dunblane man was roaring once more when a mean slice forced Basilashvili into an error to set up a break and set point.
The next powerful serve was redirected into the corner by Murray and suddenly, after four years away from the singles competition, Murray took first set on Wimbledon's Centre Court.
All eyes were on how his body would hold up and as the second set rolled around the signs looked promising — though there were a few moments where he was caught slipping or badly out of position.
Again it was a similar pattern to begin the second set with two bruising servers refusing to give an inch.
Basilashvili was handed a break point midway through when Murray fluffed a drop shot but failed to capitalise.
He then got another on Murray's next service game when a disagreement with a line judgement seemed to throw the Scot slightly off. But once again errors were the number 24 seed's downfall.
Murray was showing no signs of slowing down. He looked pumped up, feeding off the half-capacity crowd, and there was little wrong with his movement when he followed up BasilashvilI's double fault by getting to a deep backhand, sending it back across for his opponent to thump into the net.
Break point secured, and Murray made a routine hold of serve to go two sets up.
Three games later, he was another two breaks to the good and the contest looked effectively over as the home crowd - and of course mum Judy and wife Kim - tried to cheer him over the line.
Murray had the chance to finish with a 6-0 blowout but then came BasilashvilI's first breaks of the game and astonishingly he took the set 7-5.
Suddenly the Georgian had gone from looking down and out to a real threat as the pair traded breaks to begin the fourth.
But Murray got ahead again before holding his serve and then withstanding some late resistance to finally bring things to an end after a fifth deuce on his opponent's serve, at which point the roof had been closed over Centre Court.
It's a happy return for Andy Murray after all — but he didn't half give us one or two frights.
