Sam uses her protected ("special" in WTA-speak) ranking to return to action at a tournament where she reached the final in 2013, though it was a 25K at that stage:
L32: (SR) Samantha Murray WR 586 v Ellie Halbauer (USA) WR 416 (CH 392 last month)
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Slightly surprised she used her PR here - she'd have came through qualies quite easily I think and the matches might have been useful as well as the 5 points. Always a difficult balance of what events to enter with I suppose.
This is a good competitive match, though a bit of an ask now having put herself in a decent looking position, twice a break up in the second.
She still seems to be tiring after playing a while so would have found it difficult to come through qualifying and the main draw. Hope she can battle back in this final set.
Why do you think she's tiring? Unless she still has an injury niggle, I thought she looked one of the fittest players we have when I saw her in early summer.
She might tighten up (she does, like all of them, but even more so when you haven't played as much as you'd like to have done).