Andy Murray let out one yell, then another, and violently pumped his right fist. Quite a reaction, considering this was merely a first-round victory over an inexperienced opponent who recently cracked the top 100 for the first time.
Still, this meant something to Murray. It was a test of his surgically repaired hip, and he put aside a deficit and some real rust to win his first hard-court match in nearly 1 years, coming back at the Citi Open to edge Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
"I enjoyed getting through that one obviously, you see by the celebration," Murray said after a match that began a little past 10 p.m. Monday because of a rain delay, and ended at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday.
"It was great to get through that one," he said, "but in terms of the actual way that I went about the match and played the match, I wasn't that happy with it."