Beijing (AFP)

Exhausted but victorious, Andy Murray has chained a second consecutive singles victory since his hip operation in January, on Wednesday at the expense of his British compatriot Cameron Norrie in the 8th finals of the ATP 500 tournament in Beijing.

"I'm tired, I slept a bit before coming ... I'm really tired," said Murray in preamble at his press conference, an hour and a half after the end of his match.

On the court, he gave everything, he who had not chained two victories in a row on the main circuit of the ATP since the tournament in Shenzhen in September 2018 where he had given in the quarter against the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco .

Combative as at his finest hours, the former World No. 1 dropped to 503rd place today, eliminated Norrie (69) 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (4/7), 6- 1 in 2:52 the day after his first victory of weight since his return to the competition in August, against the 13th world-wide Matteo Berrettini.

In the quarter-finals on Friday, the Scotsman should take a much tougher test as he faces the world No.5 Dominic Thiem who did not let the slightest chance in the 8th Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (213th), beaten 6-3 , 6-3.

Murray, 32, has not played a Top 10 player since his return.

As in the first round against Berrettini, the triple Grand Slam winner (US Open 2012, Wimbledon 2013 and 2016) showed Wednesday he had found a very high level of play and a very high mental level.

But pushed to the 3rd set, he felt that he had to change tactics to save himself physically.

- "Take risks" -

"I decided that if I wanted to win, I had to take risks and get on the net to try to finish the points faster, and that's what I did," he said.

The former world No.1 won last week in Zhuhai his first single on the ATP circuit since the installation of a prosthesis in the left hip in January, at the expense of the American Tennys Sandgren. But he suffered physically in the second lap and lost to Australian Alex De Minaur.

The Scotsman had mentioned in Melbourne in January a likely retirement after Wimbledon 2019 - where he played in doubles and mixed doubles - because of his recalcitrant hip.

But the success of his operation allowed him to return to the circuit in June in doubles, including a win at the grass tournament Queen's, associated with the Spanish Feliciano Lopez. In singles, he made his comeback in August at the Cincinnati Masters 1000, with a defeat from his entry in the fight against the French Richard Gasquet.

© 2019 AFP