Andy Murray beat British rival Kyle Edmund at the Citi Open in Washington DC to set up a third-round clash against Romania’s Marius Copil.
The former world No.1, who is now 832nd in the rankings, said the performance was as pleasing as the result.
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He told the ATP website: “It was much better, just in terms of the way I actually played the match. In the first match [against Mackenzie McDonald] I basically spent the whole match defending, I was playing quite far behind the baseline. And that’s not really how I want to be playing moving forward.
“[I] spoke at good length with my coach about that. Today, regardless of the result, we wanted to at least be dictating more points, trying to use my forehand, be closer to the baseline.
“I think I did that, especially in some of the important moments in the third set... I was being more offensive. I was a lot happier with the way I approached the match today.”
Murray, 31, missed Wimbledon last month to continue working on his fitness and the Citi Open is only his third tournament since returning to the court in June. He will use the US hard-court events as preparation for this month’s US Open, the final tennis Grand Slam of the season.
The Times reports that Murray’s two victories in Washington will move him “close to the top 500”.