In the intervening years Murray had cemented his place as a tennis great by winning Wimbledon for a second time, securing a second Olympic gold, leading Britain to victory in the Davis Cup and spending 41 weeks as world number one.

The circumstances were rather different this time, though. In 2014, Murray was flying high following his momentous first Wimbledon victory the previous year, when he became the first British man to win the singles since 1936.

In September 2018 he arrived in Shenzhen, a sprawling mega-city in southern China just across the border from Hong Kong, battling a long-term hip injury and ranked 311th in the world. He had been given a wildcard to play in the tournament, which was held at the Shenzhen Longgang Sports Centre.

He was nevertheless still the star attraction at the event. It was one of the smaller of the four ATP tournaments held in China in 2018 – Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu hosted the others – and its modest status was reflected in the 2018 entry list. The highest ranked player was David Goffin at number 11, and only a couple of other players were in the top 30.

The big-money Shanghai Masters, by contrast, attracted all-time greats Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, plus fellow grand slam winner Juan Martin del Potro and, in all, eight of the world’s top 10 male players. Total prize money at Shenzhen was $800,000, while at Shanghai it was $9,220,000.

Despite its modest scale and limited star power, the Shenzhen event had a certain charm even if the facility could have done with a little TLC. Some of the practice court surfaces, in particular, were in poor condition and not worthy of an ATP event.

It was all very relaxed, and when I arrived most of the stewards were sitting around eating noodles. The catering for visitors was fairly limited, though there was a place where you could get a beer and sit chatting to the owner while watching the action on a big screen.

I’d crossed the border from Hong Kong and travelled out to the tennis centre in the suburb of Longgang on Shenzhen’s excellent metro. I stayed at a hotel near the complex, though some tennis mad day-trippers were returning to Hong Kong at the end of play.

I, like everyone else, had come to see Murray, who was playing defending champion and top seed David Goffin from Belgium – the only shout you heard from the crowd throughout the match was “Come on Andy!” Even though, the concrete bowl was barely a third full for the second-round evening match.

Women’s tennis is more popular in China than men’s, largely because of the success of former French Open and Australian Open champion Li Na – there were seven women’s events in China in 2018.

In January 2018 the women’s tour announced that the season-ending WTA Finals would take place in Shenzhen for 10 years from 2019 in a new purpose-built venue in the city centre, with the year’s eight top-ranked singles players and doubles pairs competing for $14 million prize money. A separate women’s Shenzhen Open is held in January.

Murray started strongly to take the first set and then faltered a bit in the second before securing a 6-3, 6-4 win.

He served well and hit plenty of good shots, and his mobility seemed fine, though he walked awkwardly between points. He hit 15 aces compared with Goffin’s one, perhaps a sign that he was adapting his game to cut back on his trademark energy-sapping long rallies.

His resilience and competitive spirit were clearly still there, and it was like old times as he chuntered angrily to himself and directed laser glares at his coach in the stands, apparently unhappy about something they’d been working on during practice. There weren’t many fist pumps, though.

At the end of the match Murray was asked to put his handprint on a Iarge flag that had been passed down over the heads of spectators. Earlier in the week he’d been presented with a commemorative plate marking his contribution to tennis in China. He dropped the plate and it smashed on the ground, and for a moment I feared he was going to tear the flag.

Most of the spectators, me among them, then headed for the exits and streamed out into the night, leaving the last two players due on court to compete in front of almost empty stands.

Perhaps more would have stayed if they’d known this was to be the last ATP event in Shenzhen. In November 2018 the tour announced that it would be replaced on the calendar by a tournament in the city of Zhuhai the following year, with prize money of nearly $1 million.

Murray was beaten by Fernando Verdasco in straight sets in the next round, and afterwards announced that he was ending his season early because of an ankle injury. He recorded one further victory, at the Brisbane International in January 2019, before shocking the tennis world by announcing that he would have to retire because of his hip problem.

He said he hoped to bow out at Wimbledon, but the upcoming Australian Open might be his last tournament.

Later that month he had hip resurfacing surgery in London, and six months on things looked much brighter. His final match before surgery was a thrilling five-set marathon at the Aussie Open where he went down fighting against Roberto Bautista Agut.

The battling performance against all the odds was a reminder of the qualities that had made him a great of the game – as was that gritty win in Shenzhen.

Updated June 2019