![\"\u0627\u0644\u0634\u0627\u0647\u064a\u0646](\"images\/stories\/2018\/08\/2\/09\/tennis_66.jpg\")
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Andy Murray celebrates a win over Mackenzie McDonald during the Citi Open at the Rock Creek Tennis Centre on Monday in Washington, DC (AFP photo by Mitchell Layton)<\/p>\n
Former World No. 1 Andy Murray was far from his best but was still good enough to come from behind and defeat American Mackenzie McDonald 3-6 6-4, 7-5 in a marathon first-round match at the Washington Open on Monday.<\/p>\n
Murray, who is attempting to return to the top of the tennis world after undergoing hip surgery in January, was out of sorts in the first set of the rain-delayed match, losing three service games behind some uncharacteristically soft second serves.<\/p>\n
He looked in trouble but found new life when McDonald sent a forehand wide to hand Murray a break and a 5-4 advantage in the second set.<\/p>\n
The error ignited the three-time Grand Slam champion, who pumped his fist and screamed after easily holding serve to set up a third-set decider.<\/p>\n
McDonald, coming off a round of 16 appearance at Wimbledon that put him in the top 100 for the first time in his career, blasted winners all night but was ultimately undone by a torrent of unforced errors in the third set, including a costly one when his racquet crossed the net on a volley.<\/p>\n
Despite the win, Murray looked far from his dominant self.<\/p>\n
He walked awkwardly around the court between points, especially in the lengthy third set when at one point he grabbed his hamstring and winced in pain.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old also tightened up at key moments in the match, needing seven match point opportunities before finally crossing the finish line.<\/p>\n
Next up for Murray is countryman Kyle Edmund, who he will face on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Murray has a 2-1 lead in head-to-head matches against Edmund, but the 23-year-old won in straight sets when the pair met in the second round of the Eastbourne International last month.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere American Tim Smyczek won his rain-interrupted match against Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 7-6(4), 6-2 and will next face Mischa Zverev, who defeated Smyczek in three sets at the Atlanta Open last week.<\/p>\n
Tunisian Malek Jaziri cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Russian Evgeny Donskoy while Romanian Marius Copil fired nine aces en route to a 7-6, 6-4 win over Mirza Basic.<\/p>\n
American Noah Rubin’s powerful serving overwhelmed Russian Mikhail Youzhny.<\/p>\n
Lukas Lacko held a 1-0 lead over American Denis Kudla before their match was called off due to rain while three-times Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka’s match against struggling American Donald Young was rescheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Murray celebrates a win over Mackenzie McDonald during the Citi Open at the Rock Creek Tennis Centre on Monday in Washington, DC (AFP photo by Mitchell Layton) Former World No. 1 Andy Murray was far from his best but was still good enough to come from behind and defeat American Mackenzie McDonald 3-6 6-4, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\n