Murray gains revenge on Edmund in Washington DC

Andy Murray’s comeback continues to gather steam with the former world No.1 through to the third round at the ATP 500 event in Washington DC.

Murray beat fellow Brit Kyle Edmund 7-6(4) 1-6 6-4 in a physical encounter lasting more than two-and-a-half hours.

The comeback continues….@andy_murray takes out compatriot Edmund 7-6(4) 1-6 6-4 to reach the third round in Washington.#CitiOpen pic.twitter.com/GOAIFRmidG

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) August 1, 2018

Edmund was the aggressor, pounding 56 winners – 34 on his forehand alone – to Murray’s 28. But he led the unforced error count by a similarly wide margin.

The victory saw Murray turn the tables on his compatriot; just over a month ago in the second round at Eastbourne, Edmund beat the three-time major winner in straight sets.

This is Murray’s third tournament back from an ongoing hip injury which sidelined him for almost a year, and his first hardcourt event since Indian Wells in March 2017.

After beating Mackenzie McDonald in the first round in Washington in a similarly bruising three-setter, Murray will attempt to make it three wins on the trot and seal a quarterfinal berth when he faces Marius Copil of Romania.

Currently ranked No.838, Murray’s performance in the US capital is expected to boost him back towards the top 500.

Andy Murray's three-set win over Kyle Edmund his first top 20 win since the 2017 Roland Garros quarters vs Nishikori.

With two wins, he's up 321 spots to ~511.

— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) August 1, 2018

“All of the matches just now are important for me,” Murray told Tennis TV.

“I’ve still only played a handful of matches in the last 17 or 18 months, so to get two long matches in difficult conditions against very good players – Kyle has played fantastic the whole year – so to get a long match and a win against him is great.

“I would like to play the matches a bit quicker – It’s not ideal to play two-and-a-half hour matches in these conditions when you’re just coming back from injury, but it will hopefully be good for me in the long run and we’ll try and keep it going.”