Andy Murray picks up where he left off under coach Ivan Lendl

Playing his first match of the grass-court season and his first since his reunion with Ivan Lendl, Andy Murray could hardly have wished for a better start. Nicolas Mahut, a highly experienced grass-court campaigner, pushed Murray hard in their first-round contest here at the Aegon Championships but was eventually outplayed as the world No 2 won 7-6, 7-6.

Having felt washed out following his exertions at the French Open, Murray did not begin practising on grass until three days ago. With the start of Wimbledon only 13 days away, he could do with as much court time as possible this week, but the bad weather had given the 29-year-old Scot little time to reacquaint himself with the idiosyncrasies of grass-court tennis.

Nevertheless, by the end of this opening match he was proving once again what a master he can be of this surface. On a slippery court, on which Mahut suffered two heavy falls, Murray displayed the assurance of a man who knows as well as anyone how to handle the challenges that grass can provide.

In the second round on Thursday Murray will play Aljaz Bedene, who beat the Frenchman Benoit Paire 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 after a gruelling encounter that finished in near darkness after 9pm. It will be Murray’s first tour-level encounter on home soil with a fellow Briton. The only other British player he has ever met at this level was Tim Henman, who won their last meeting, in Bangkok in 2006.

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Murray played with admirable focus on his task, as he so often did in his previous spell working with Lendl. There were times when he seemed frustrated by the playing surface, which can always be tricky at this stage of the season, but there was no sign of the scowling and shouting in the general direction of his entourage that has so often been a feature of his matches in the past.

Lendl himself sat courtside next to Jamie Delgado, Murray’s full-time coach, and was almost expressionless throughout. Old Stoneface, wearing his trademark sunglasses, looked as if he had hardly been away.

“It’s great to have him back as part of the team,” Murray said afterwards. “When we were chatting before the match, it didn't feel strange. It felt like it did before. I think it’s a positive thing. Obviously I don’t play tomorrow, so it will be good to get a good proper practice session in. Hopefully we will get a few hours on the court and work on a few things.”

Murray, who is aiming to become the first man to win this title five times, could hardly have had a more testing first-round opponent. Mahut, who beat him in the first round here four years ago, arrived in west London with a 2016 grass-court title already to his name after winning the rain-delayed final at ’s-Hertogenbosch on Monday. The 34-year-old Frenchman, whose world No 2 ranking in doubles is a good reflection of his volleying ability, has only ever won four singles titles and they have all been on grass.

Having announced on Sunday that he was reuniting with his old coach following his split with Amelie Mauresmo, Murray had his first practice session with Lendl in the morning. Rain interruptions meant that the match preceding Murray’s - in which Fernando Verdasco beat Stan Wawrinka, the second seed, 6-2, 7-6 – did not finish until just after 5pm.

Mahut made the first break of serve in the fifth game when Murray netted a backhand, but the Scot immediately responded in kind, levelling at 3-3 with a forehand winner down the line. Murray saved one set point in the tie-break, which he took 10-8 after the Frenchman put a loose forehand in the net.

After making an early break in the second set, Mahut served to level the contest at 5-3, only for Murray to play his best return game of the match as he hit the ball with admirable aggression and purpose. Mahut, nevertheless, pushed hard and Murray had to save three set points when serving at 5-6 before forcing a second tie-break. Murray went 3-0 up after Mahut fell when being wrong-footed by the Scot’s crisp cross-court forehand and went on to win the tie-break 7-1.

“It was a good win,” Murray said. “Nicolas is a very good grass court player, coming off winning an event just yesterday. So he's confident and has played a lot on the grass. I haven’t really hit many balls on the grass the last few days, and the balls that I have hit there’s been very little, limited movement. I’ve not been able to play any points really at all, so to get a win against a player as good as him on grass, without loads of preparation, was good.”

The Scot said the conditions had been difficult. “Normally at the beginning of the event here, the courts are pretty slippy and you just feel uncomfortable moving,” he said. “And because I have not had much time on the grass, you feel even more unsure on your footing. When you're aware the court is a little bit slippy there is a completely different way of moving to on the clay and you have to change and adjust that.

“I’m happy I didn't slip or fall over. I kept my balance fairly well, but it was still tricky to move. I think all of the players have found that.”

Wawrinka’s defeat was an inauspicious start to Richard Krajicek’s association with the 31-year-old Swiss, who recruited the 1996 Wimbledon champion to his coaching team with a view to improving his fortunes on grass. In his four visits to Queen’s Club Wawrinka has gone beyond the second round only once, while Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament in which the world No 5 has not gone beyond the quarter-finals.

“Grass is always a challenging surface for my game,” Wawrinka said afterwards. “I need quite a lot of practice to play my best game. I tried today with what I had, but I think I need more time to get my level there.”

Britain’s James Ward went out of the tournament when he was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Gilles Muller, while two former champions also fell at the first hurdle. Grigor Dimitrov, the winner in 2014, was beaten 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 by Janko Tipsarevic and Sam Querrey, the 2010 champion, went down 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 to Roberto Bautista Agut.

Marin Cilic, the 2012 champion, beat Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, but Kevin Anderson, who lost to Murray in last year’s final, was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Bernard Tomic. Nick Kyrgios and Milos Raonic were tied at one set apiece when their match was called off for the day because of fading light.

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Petra Kvitova, the two-times Wimbledon champion, beat her fellow Czech, Lucie Safarova, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Aegon Classic at Edgbaston. Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champion, beat China’s Peng Shuai 7-6, 6-3.

Garbine Muguruza, the French Open champion and last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, suffered a setback when she was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Kirsten Flipkens in the first round of the Majorca Open.

Maria Sharapova has appealed her two-year doping ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will make its ruling by 18 July at the latest.