India's Jeev Milkha Singh produced a superb fightback to advance to the second round of the inaugural Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay.

Singh lost four of the first six holes against Australian Scott Hend at Murcar Links and had to birdie the ninth for a half just to remain four down at the turn.

But the former Scottish Open champion then birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th to reduce his deficit and took the lead for the first time in the match when Hend bogeyed the 14th and 15th.

The match was back to all square when Singh dropped a shot on the 16th, but Hend then failed to get up and down from the back of the 17th green and Singh scrambled a par on the last to seal an unlikely win.

"When I was four down I just thought to myself 'If you're going to lose, you may as well go for everything,'" Singh said. "I was more aggressive and it paid off.

"It's a perfect course for match play. If you're down you can be aggressive and go for greens, if you want to be conservative you can do that too."

England's Tom Lewis had also threatened to come back from four down in the opening match against France's Julien Quesne, whose lead disappeared in the space of five holes thanks to a bogey, two double bogeys and a concession on the 13th.

However, after losing the 16th and winning the 17th with a birdie to get back to all square, Lewis saw his approach to the last plug in a greenside bunker and Quesne's par was good enough to take him into the last 32.

The in-form Matt Fitzpatrick, who was second in the Omega European Masters on Sunday, thrashed Bradley Dredge 6&4, while former Ryder Cup player Edoardo Molinari defeated Sweden's Magnus Carlsson 5&4.

Home favourite Richie Ramsay fell further behind in his match against India's Shiv Kapur with another dropped shot on the seventh, but carded his first birdie of the day on the eighth to get back to two down.

Lewis and Singh were also keeping their hopes alive after looking destined for quick defeats, although Lewis only had to card one birdie to get back to just one down as Quesne made a double bogey on the 11th and conceded the 13th.

Singh had birdied the ninth just to remain four down and also birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th to reduce his deficit to one hole against Hend.