Tennis tips: Andy Murray faces uphill task against Taylor Fritz at the Citi Open
- Derek Bilton
- 3 August 2023
Andy Murray takes on Taylor Fritz at the Citi Open in Washington.
They say it's the hope that kills you. Andy Murray won his first singles match since Wimbledon by beating touted American Brandon Nakashima 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to reach the third round of the Citi Open on Wednesday.
The Scot, now playing with a metal hip, last won at ATP Tour event in Antwerp three and a half years ago. He is 36 and has been through so much in a Hall-of-Fame career that began way back in 2005.
By a strange quirk of fate, I was in town to watch his ATP debut at the Barcelona Open back in '05. I remember the wind kicking red clay everywhere on an obscure outside court as he faced Czech Jan Hernych - who was ranked 79th in the world at the time - in front of what must have been less than 300 people.
A scrawny Murray showed the tenacity that he would become famous for on that unremarkable afternoon in Catalonia, before eventually losing 6-3, 4-6, 4-6. At no point during the course of that match did I think I was watching the greatest British tennis player of the Open era, or a player who would eventually reach 500 ATP match wins.
In the 2016 campaign, Murray became the first male player to win singles titles at a Grand Slam, the Olympics, a Masters 1000 event, and the ATP Finals in the same calendar year. Those halcyon days are sadly long gone, but while his body may let him down more than he would like these days, his competitive spirit still burns bright.
He will need all the spirit he can muster in Washington for his third round clash against Taylor Fritz in the early hours of Friday morning (UK time).
The 25-year-old captured the sixth title of his career last Sunday with a three-set victory over Aleksandar Vukic in the Atlanta Open final.
He has now won his last five finals on Tour, a streak that began with his improbable victory over Rafael Nadal for the 2022 Indian Wells trophy.
He snapped Nadal's 20-match winning streak in that match despite being injured, and is now on a five-match winning streak of his own on US hard courts this summer.
Planet Sport Bet have Fritz as a 100/30 favourite to win Washington, with Murray's odds cut to 11/1 following that Nakashima win.
The three-time Major winner is a 2/1 shot with the same firm to beat Fritz on Friday, who leads Murray 1-0 in their head-to-head. The 6'5" right-hander won their only previous encounter at the 2022 Canadian Open in straight sets just under a year ago.
That 2/1 price looks tempting, but Murray has just one win over a top 10 player since the start of 2022.
Fritz hit eight aces and won 85% of his first serve points when he beat Zachary Svajda in his first match in Washington. The one positive for Murray fans is that Svajda managed eight break points on the Fritz serve. The bad news is the conversation rate on those break points was 0%.
The heart reckons Murray has a shot here, but the head says Fritz gets it done in two.
