Murray gets past Edmund
Veteran beats No. 4 in all-British match; Tiafoe wins; Stephens eliminated
WASHINGTON — Andy Murray is showing signs of returning to form, right down to the return winner he delivered on the last point of his first victory over a top-20 player in more than a year.
Murray took a more aggressive approach as he works his way back from hip surgery and moved into the third round at the Citi Open by beating No. 4 seed Kyle Edmund, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4, on Wednesday in Rock Creek Park.
Murray is a three-time major champion and former No. 1 who was sidelined for 11 months because of his right hip. He missed the second half of 2017, had an operation in January, then returned to the tour briefly in June. One of his three matches that month was a loss on a grass court to Edmund, the Australian Open semifinalist who has supplanted Murray as Britain’s highest-ranked man.
When they played last time, Murray, said, “Any time Kyle was dictating the points, I wasn’t tracking enough balls down. I felt a bit slow to the balls. Today, I was able to defend and dig up a few more shots and that made a big difference.”
There is still work to be done by Murray, of course. He is ranked 832nd, has played only five matches in12 months, and needed three sets for each of his victories in Washington’s hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open.
Unlike in his opening match Monday, when he felt he was too defensive, Murray made a point of attacking more against Edmund.
“Regardless of the result, we wanted to Three-time major champion Andy Murray, who is coming back from a hip injury, reacts to call during his 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 win over Kyle Edmund in Washington. at least be dictating more points, trying to use my forehand, be close to the baseline,” he said. “And I think I did that, especially in some of the important moments in the third set.”
Also moving into the third round was No. 1 seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev, and his next matchup is a rare one: Today, he’ll face his older brother, No. 15 seed Mischa. It’s their first meeting in an ATP main-draw match.
“It’s a special day, because not a lot of families can say two brothers played against each other on a such a high level, in one of the biggest tournaments in the world,” said Alexander, who finished off a rain-interrupted 6-2, 6-1 win against Malek Jaziri. “Obviously, we both want to win. We won’t give each other anything.”
The German siblings, who were taught tennis by their father, paired up Wednesday night as a doubles team.
Seeded players exiting the draw included No. 5 Nick Kyrgios, who withdrew with a hip injury, along with No. 12 Karen Khachanov and No. 14 Jeremy Chardy, who both lost. No. 9 Denis Shapovalov defeated Daniil Medvedev, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4; and No. 10 Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Jared Donaldson, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
No. 13 seed Frances Tiafoe picked up his first victory at his hometown ATP tournament, beating 120th-ranked Hubert Hurkacz of Poland, 6-2, 6-4, with the help of 10 aces. Tiafoe, a 20-year-old from Riverdale in Prince George’s County, called his performance “nice, quick, efficient.”
He showed up to his postmatch news conference wearing a red T-shirt with the words, “Rep your city,” after needing just 75 minutes to win in front of a crowd that included his parents, brother and “couple aunts, couple uncles.”
Tiafoe entered the day 0-2 at the Citi Open.
Another local player, Denis Kudla of Arlington, Va., who, like Tiafoe trained at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, eliminated No. 12 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia, 6-2, 6-3.
In the women’s field, reigning U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens continued her tendency for all-or-nothing showings at tournaments, losing, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round to 91st-ranked Andrea Petkovic.
Stephens was seeded No. 2 at a tournament she won in 2015 for her first WTA title. Now she’ll want to get her game going in the right direction before she begins the defense of her first Grand Slam title on Aug. 27.
“Hopefully,” Stephens said, “some things connect in the next couple of weeks.”