Murray Marches Into Washington Third Round

Andy Murray found his way through a compelling contest Wednesday against American Brandon Nakashima to reach the third round of the Mubadala Citi DC Open.

The three-time major champion Murray earned a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory against Nakashima, who won the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals. Murray found consistency from the baseline and mixed in variety, producing deft drop shots and often working his way forward to advance after two hours, 11 minutes. Despite trailing 2/5 in the opening-set tie-break, Murray tallied five consecutive points to gain an advantage.

“I thought I did well, I hit the ball very well from the beginning of the match,” Murray said in his on-court interview. “I was struggling a little bit on the return. Brandon serves well, especially his second serve. I was struggling to create many opportunities on return. But I was just a little bit more solid than him at the end of the tie-break, he made a few mistakes, I put enough balls back in play.

“Then I got the break immediately at the beginning of the second set and served it out pretty well from there. It was tight at the end. The courts and the balls are extremely slow here, so you’re having to work really hard in all of the games, it’s not easy to finish points. It was a good one to get through.”

A finalist at the ATP 500 event in 2006, the Scot won 82 per cent of his first-serve points and saved all six break points faced to set a clash against top seed Taylor Fritz or qualifier Zachary Svajda.

In other Washington action, Christopher Eubanks wasted no time to book his ticket to the third round. The 27-year-old continued his standout season in winning fashion, defeating Japanese qualifier Sho Shimabukuro 6-3, 6-4. Eubanks struck the ball freely, firing 28 winners to seal victory in one hour, 11 minutes.

The American Eubanks, who is at a career-high World No. 29 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, has won 12 of his past 14 matches, a run that started with his triumph at the Mallorca Championships before reaching the last eight at Wimbledon.

Eubanks will next meet Jordan Thompson after the Australian downed seventh seed Adrian Mannarino 7-5, 6-4 to earn his 100th tour-level match win.

Yosuke Watanuki upset World No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6(10), 7-6(3) for the highest-ranked win of his career.

The Japanese star Watanuki, who cracked the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time Monday when he climbed to World No. 99, took the ball early and unleashed his firepower to oust the Canadian. The 25-year-old will next face Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who ousted Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-4.

Ninth seed Daniel Evans also advanced after surviving Gregoire Barrere 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. 16th seed J.J. Wolf cruised past Radu Albot 6-1, 6-3.