By Jake Davies
- Andy Murray defeats Kyle Edmund [4] 7-6 (4) 1-6 6-4
- Andy Murray vs Marius Copil
WASHINGTON DC, USA – Andy Murray edged past British No.1 Kyle Edmund in a three set encounter and now will go on to face Romania’s Marius Copil for a place in the quarter-final of Washington.
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Andy Murray defeats Kyle Edmund [4] 7-6 (4) 1-6 6-4
The former World No.1 will be pleased with the quickness of his progress after surpassing a great effort from Mackenzie McDonald in the last round, Murray now scores his first win over a Top-20 player since beating Kei Nishikori in the Roland Garros quarter-final in 2017. It has been quite some wait for Murray.
The first set felt like a real nervy start to the match from both players. Both were holding their serve relatively comfortably to begin with, but it was the shot-making off the ground that was slightly off, but it turned into one great British battle. Edmund had his chances to take up the domineering position in the match as he served for the opening set, but Murray dragged Edmund into a nail-biting 1st set tiebreak and just about held it together that little bit better.
Murray showed all of his experience as he virtually gave very little from the baseline, but pounced on the second serve when the time was right as he claimed the set with a beautiful backhand cross court winner that landed on the sideline.
The positive thing for Edmund was that he managed to have his own very good spell in the match, where he started to find a high percentage of forehands, but most importantly he was able to do a lot with those forehands. Edmund knows that he has to make his opponents pay when that shot joins the conversation and for 30 minutes he stole the show with that shot and fully deserved winning six of the next seven games to win the set.
Like all Grand Slam champions do, they react and Murray was not going to go down without a fight. Murray started to show glimpses of some of his best tennis in this third set. He improved his court position, realising that he could not allow Edmund to have time on the baseline as he would be doing a lot of running. He stepped into his groundstrokes, took his chances far better than Edmund did and he attacked the Edmund backhand with the first return and the first groundstroke of the rally.
Edmund’s jitters appeared once again as he double faulted at 5-4 30/30 and then Murray delivered another big backhand cross-court return winner to win the match deep into the third set to seal a massive win for his confidence and for his outlook on his comeback to the hard courts.
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Andy Murray vs Marius Copil H2H: Murray leads 1-0
The key for Murray’s victory over Edmund was the fact that he could sense the match was not falling into his direction, so he adjusted his strategy and decided to play a bit more aggressively when he needed to. He will need to do just that in his next match as he comes up against Marius Copil. It is a match on paper that Murray should have no problems with and with that little bit more reassurance after coming through against some of the tour’s best players he should really thrive in this particular encounter.
Copil strikes a big ball, likes to end his points fairly quickly and can really dominate behind the first serve, but Murray should be able to neutralise that single shot with the quality of his first and second serve return.
Prediction: Murray in straight sets
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