Andy Murray is showing signs of returning to his old 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 on Wednesday took a more aggressive approach as he works his way back from hip surgery, moving into the third round at the Citi Open by beating No. 4 seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-4.
Murray was sidelined for 11 months because of his right hip. He missed the second half of last year, had an operation in January, then returned to the tour briefly in June.
Photo: AFP
One of his three matches that month was a loss on a grass court to Edmund, the Australian Open semi-finalist who has supplanted Murray as Britain’s highest-ranked man.
There is still work to be done by Murray, of course. He is ranked 832nd, has played only five matches in 12 months and needed three sets for each of his victories in Washington’s hard-court tuneup for the US Open.
Unlike in his opening match on Monday, when he felt he was too defensive, Murray made a point of attacking more against Edmund.
“Regardless of the result, we wanted to 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 top seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev, and his next matchup is a rare one: Yesterday, he was to face his older brother, No. 15 seed Mischa, in 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 Zverev, 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 on Wednesday night as a doubles team until that match was suspended by a storm that washed out play for the day.
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.
In the women’s singles, reigning US 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 world No. 91 Andrea Petkovic.
Stephens was seeded No. 2 at a tournament she won in 2015 for her first WTA title. Now she will want to get her game going in the right direction before she begins the defense of her first Grand Slam title on Aug. 27.
Her best results this season were a runner-up finish at the French Open and a title at the Miami Open, but take away those tournaments, and the American is 10-11 this year, including first-round exits at Wimbledon last month and the Australian Open in January.
Stephens’ loss leaves the women’s draw without either of its top two seeds, after No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki withdrew on Tuesday because of a leg injury.
In the first round of the women’s doubles, Taiwanese duo Chen Pei-hsuan and Wu Fang-hsien fell to a 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 defeat to third seeds Han Xinyun of China and Darija Jurak of Croatia.
Additional reporting by staff writer
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS