ATP roundup: Murray ekes out win in Washington

Andy Murray's comeback began with a come-from-behind win early Tuesday. Murray, a 31-year-old former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, rallied past American Mackenzie McDonald 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the first round of the Citi Open in Washington. Murray squandered five match points while serving at 5-4 in the third set and another at 6-5 before closing out the win. The Citi Open is just Murray's third tournament of the year, and his first since he withdrew from Wimbledon after playing two grass-court warmup events. Murray underwent hip surgery in January after the hip ailment slowed him in 2017. The Scottish star entered play Monday ranked No. 832 in the world, and he admitted before the match, "It sort of feels like I am starting from scratch again." Other first-round winners Monday included Poland's Hubert Hurkacz, Tunisia's Malek Jaziri, Romania's Marius Copil and Americans Tim Smyczek and Noah Rubin. Abierto Mexicano de Tenis Mifel Seventh-seeded American Taylor Fritz saved set points in each set en route to a 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) win over Australian wild card Thanasi Kokkinakis in the opening round at Los Cabos, Mexico. Neither player managed a service break, but Kokkanakis had a break chance at 4-5 in the second set when he could have put the match away. Instead, Fritz rebounded to protect his serve and ultimately prevail in a second tiebreaker. Michael Mmoh earned a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory over fellow American Ernesto Escobedo. Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, Italy's Thomas Fabbiano and Sweden's Elias Ymer also captured first-round victories. Generali Open Eighth-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic needed just 70 minutes to beat Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 6-2 in the first round at Kitzbuhel, Austria. Lajovic saved the only break point he faced while converting four of his eight break opportunities. Also advancing to the second round were Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, Austria's Dennis Novak, Spain's Jaume Munar and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin. --Field Level Media