Andy and Jamie Murray battled to a tight three-set win in their first pairing for three years in the first round of the Citi Open in Washington overnight.
Reuniting on court for the first time since the Rio Olympics, the Murray brothers bounced back from 5-2 in the deciding tiebreak against Wimbledon runners-up Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to seal a 6-4, 6-7, 10-5 victory.
The brothers had three match points in the second set only to see those saved to set up a tense finale in Murray Jr’s fourth tournament since undergoing hip surgery.
The venue was apt as it was here a year ago that he came off court in tears from his hip pain after winning a third-round match only to then pull out of his subsequent quarter-final with the injury.Twelve months on, he said: “I’m in a much better place now than I was last year. I didn’t know how much more I was going to be able to play after last year. To come back and be competing and be pain free is brilliant.
“I have no pain. It’s not restricting me in any of the shots that I’m hitting. I’m still maybe a little bit slow and I’m hoping that’s something that comes back with time.”
