The Centre Court crowd roared when Andy Murray walked out onto the green grass for his first Wimbledon match in four years. He smiled and replied with a thumbs-up.

They roared some more when he claimed the first set of his first-round match Monday against 24th-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili. And again when he claimed the second. And when he seemed on the verge of a stroll through the third.

That’s when things got complicated for Murray, who won the title at the All England Club in 2013 — giving Britain its first male champion there in 77 years — and again in 2016, but since has needed two hip operations and dealt with other assorted injuries. After wasting a pair of match points and ceding the third set, Murray — much to the fans’ delight and, naturally, his own — pulled out the seesaw of a victory over Basilashvili by the score of 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, eliciting more roars.