Shapovalov flirts with disaster but advances to 3rd round at Citi Open

Canadian Denis Shapovalov advanced to the third round of the Citi Open with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Russia's Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday.

Shapovalov, seeded ninth in Washington, flirted with disaster for much of the match, dropping the first set and falling behind 4-1 in the third before rallying to win in two hours.

The teenager from Richmond Hill, Ont., had 15 aces to Medvedev's two, and converted four of his 10 break point opportunities.

Shapovalov was only accurate on 60 per cent of his first serves, but when they were good he scored on 87 per cent of them.

Medvedev, who converted two of his eight break point opportunities, struggled with accuracy in his service game. Only 50 of his 97 first serves were good, and even when they fell he only won a point 66 per cent of the time.

Shapovalov, ranked 26th in the world, will next face the winner of a match between seventh seed Kei Nishikori of Japan and American qualifier Donald Young.

Murray powers his way past Edmund at Citi Open:

Showing signs of returning to his old form, right down to the return winner on the last point, Andy Murray moved into the third round by beating No. 4 seed Kyle Edmund 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 for just his third victory since having hip surgery.

Murray is a three-time major champion and former No. 1 who was sidelined for 11 months because of his right hip. He missed the second half of 2017, had an operation in January, then returned to the tour briefly in June. One of his three matches that month was a loss on a grass court to Edmund, the Australian Open semifinalist who has supplanted Murray as Britain's highest-ranked man.

There is still work to be done by Murray, of course. He is ranked 832nd, has played only five matches in the past 12 months, and needed three sets for each of his victories in Washington's hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open.

After a wayward second set against Edmund, Murray collected himself in the third, all the while barking at himself after miscues, as he is wont to do. He got the measure of Edmund's serves late, earning two break points at 4-3. Another arrived at 5-4, thanks to a defensive lob that drew a long overhead from Edmund, followed by a double-fault. That brought match point, and Murray pounded a cross-court winner of an 83 mph second serve, then let out a loud yell.

Also moving into the third round was No. 1 seed and defending champion Alexander Zverev, and his next matchup is a rare one: On Thursday, he'll face his older brother, No. 15 seed Mischa. It's their first meeting in an ATP main-draw match.