Andy Murray has regained his self-confidence on the rocky road back to his old strength. The long injured Scot celebrated his first victory on Hardcourt since 4 March 2017 by beating Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 at the ATP tournament in Washington and his second victory in the past twelve months.
It was 46 minutes after midnight when Andy Murray was back for a moment. The rain over Washington D.C. had long gone – and the three-time Grand Slam winner stretched his arms into the sky after the end of the tennis marathon, showed the winner’s fist and shouted out all his relief and satisfaction with two long “Yeeeaaahhh” shouts.
In the 2:37 hours before Murray had experienced an emotional roller coaster ride and, among other things, awarded six match points on his own service. At number seven, “Sir Andy” then benefited from a forehand error by his opponent McDonald.
“It was a tough, hard game. mentally it was difficult to survive,” said the 31-year-old “night owl” and said: “It could have gone in both directions. But if you lose a match like that at the end, it’s bitter.”
His mother Judy Murray twittered with relief: “I missed this roar” – and put a heart behind it. She also presented a short video of the son’s jubilant scenes.
The opening victory at the $2.146 hard court event in the US capital was only Murray’s second success in 2018, after having undergone hip surgery at the beginning of the season. Between Wimbledon in July 2017 and the Fever Tree Championships in June 2018, the 2012 US Open Champ did not play a match.
In his third tournament of the year, the father of two daughters was only number 832 in the ATP world rankings. Murray, who was self-critical after the successful start in Washington against number 80 Mackenzie McDonald, said: “I couldn’t dictate many of the rallies and didn’t hit the ball so well. “I just fought and tried to make it as hard as possible for my opponent.”
His next opponent in the match to reach the round of 16 is his compatriot Kyle Edmund. A few weeks ago Murray lost against the 18th rankings at the grass court tournament in Eastbourne (4:6, 4:6).
One of the victims of the rains on the first main field day of the Citi Open was Stan Wawrinka, who also suffered an injury. The Swiss player’s match against Donald Young (USA) was originally scheduled after Murray’s match, but had to be postponed to Tuesday evening local time.
Murray, however, had a lot of fun even before he started. At the meeting with former English national soccer player Wayne Rooney, the tennis star also demonstrated his talent in dealing with the larger ball. Rooney, both Manchester United and the “Three Lions” team’s record scorer, joined DC United in the US MLS a few weeks ago.