Top seed Andy Murray survived a tense examination from unheralded Mikhail Kukushkin to scrape into the second round of the Brisbane International yesterday.

Murray struggled for almost two and a quarter hours before finally seeing off the world number 91 from Kazakhstan 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in an enthralling match in the Pat Rafter Arena.

The world number four arrived on court with his right knee bandaged and appeared to hobble throughout, calling for the trainer twice in the opening two sets and at times seeming to grimace in pain.

Murray later played down any talk of injury problems ahead of the Australian Open.

“My body just takes time to get used to playing competitive matches again,” he said.

“I’ve had a few little niggles over the past couple of weeks but they’ll be gone by the Australian Open. I just need to play through them now and hopefully feel better.”

An inspired Kukushkin took full advantage of Murray’s discomfort and had the top seed in big trouble early as he sent down a barrage of brilliant winners from all over the court.

Kukushkin broke Murray twice and raced to 4-0 and 5-1 leads before Murray at last began to find his range, fighting back to 5-5 only to lose his serve and hand the first set to his opponent.

However, Murray slowly began to take a grip on the match, breaking Kukushkin early and holding on to level the contest at one set apiece.

In the decider Kukushkin finally ran out of steam and a relieved Murray closed out the match to the delight of a packed centre court in Brisbane.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori rallied from behind in his match, losing the first set and being 4-1 down in the third to overhaul German Cedric-Marcel Stebe 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

The fifth seeded Nishikori will now take on crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, in the second round.

The 22-year-old said he had watched Baghdatis play on Monday night and was expecting a solid performance from the man he acknowledged as “always a good player”.