Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the first round of the Citi Open on Monday, beaten by world No. 86 Ricardas Berankis 7-6 (7/1), 6-3.
The Lithuanian saved both break points he faced and converted the only one he created to advance to the second round in 1 hour, 20 minutes in Washington.
In other men’s singles action, Teymuraz Gabashvili outlasted Benjamin Becker 4-6, 6-1, 6-3; Donald Young beat Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-4; Chung Hyeon defeated Dudi Sela 6-2, 6-1 and next faces reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic; James Duckworth eliminated Ryan Harrison 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) and next faces US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori; and Victor Estrella Burgos edged Nicolas Jarry 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to set up a match against eighth seed John Isner.
Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY
Meanwhile, Andy Murray is back on hard courts for the first time in four months — and back at the Citi Open for the first time in nine years.
The two-time major champion is seeded No. 1 at the US Open tune-up, getting his game in gear on the surface on which he won his first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows in 2012.
Like other seeded players, Murray received a first-round bye and his initial match in Washington, where he has not played since he was the 2006 runner-up, comes today against world No. 53 Gabashvili of Russia. It is to be Murray’s first competition on a hard court since losing in the final at Miami to top seed Novak Djokovic in early April.
“It does take a while, especially coming from the grass. This morning was the first time when I hit and started to feel more comfortable on the courts, feel like I’m starting to get used to them again. Obviously the conditions here, when compared with Wimbledon, is completely different. Extremely humid. Very high-bouncing courts,” said world No. 3 Murray, who lost to world No. 2 Roger Federer in the semi-finals at the All England Lawn Tennis Club last month.
In the Citi Open’s first completed match in the women’s singles, Louisa Chirico beat Heather Watson 6-3, 6-0.
It was Watson’s first tournament appearance since she pushed eventual champion Serena Williams to three sets in the third round at Wimbledon.
Yulia Putintseva got past Kurumi Nara 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) and sixth seed Irina-Camelia Begu defeated Madison Brengle 6-4, 6-0.
In the men’s doubles, the second stop on Mardy Fish’s farewell tour began with a victory.
Fish, who plans to retire after the US Open, teamed up with Grigor Dimitrov to beat last year’s Wimbledon champions Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil. Murray and Daniel Nestor lost in their doubles opener.
In singles, Murray’s season so far is three titles and a 48-7 record.
“The year as a whole, obviously, has been good. It’s been much, much better than last year. So there’s been some progress there, but obviously I want to keep trying to do better and hopefully these next few weeks I can go on a good run on hard courts and finish the year strong,” Murray said.
At the majors, Murray reached one final (losing to Djokovic at the Australian Open) and a pair of semi-finals (losing to Djokovic again at the French Open).
“In terms of goals, one of the things I spoke about at the beginning of the year was consistency and trying to make sure I did better at more of the events than I had done in the past, and I feel like that’s obviously been a positive,” Murray said. “The Grand Slams are tournaments I want to win. Haven’t quite managed to do that yet this year, but I feel like I’ve played well in all of the Slams. The French Open was the best I’ve ever played on the clay. The Australian Open, I was very close there, I felt, and unfortunately at Wimbledon, Roger played an unbelievable match. He served extremely well there and was just too good on that day.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
RSS