Andy Murray beat Brandon Nakashima 7-6(5) 6-4 to reach the last 16 of the Washington Open.
Murray had played two doubles matches alongside Dan Evans earlier this week, which ended in defeat on Tuesday, but he was in singles action for the first time since losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon last month.
The three-time Grand Slam champion is building up to the US Open, which is live on Sky Sports from August 28 to September 10. Next up for Murray is top seed Taylor Fritz or Zachary Svajda.
“I thought I did well. I hit the ball very well from the beginning of the match. I was struggling a bit on the return. Brandon serves well, especially on his second serve. I was struggling to create many opportunities on return,” said Murray.
“I was just a little bit more solid than him at the end of the tie-break. He made a few mistakes and I got some balls back in play.
“The court and the balls are extremely slow here, so you have to work really hard in all the games and it’s not easy to finish points. It was a good one to get through.”
It was a tight contest throughout and Murray looked like he was going to go a set down when Nakashima was 5-2 up in the first set tie-break, but won five consecutive points in a key moment in the match.
Murray asserted his authority by breaking at the start of the second set and crucially saved three break points when 0-40 down in the fourth game.
The rest of the match went on serve but it wasn’t without drama in the final game as Nakashima had a break point chance following a Murray double fault.
But, the Briton won a brilliant point with a brave drop shot forehand cross-court, which Nakashima hit into the net and held his nerve to get over the line.
On the drop shot, Murray said: “A little bit of luck in that shot but I executed it well. It was a pretty solid point up until that point.
“I had actually seen in the previous round that [Aleksandr] Vukic, who played Brandon, used that shot quite a lot. I didn’t use it too much today but it worked when I needed it at the end.”
Evans also progresses
Dan Evans was also victorious on Wednesday at the Washington Open
After his doubles efforts with Murray, Evans was also back in singles action as he fought back to take victory against Frenchman Gregoire Barrere 2-6 6-0 6-3.
Evans, who plays Alexander Shevchenko in the next round, got the decisive break in the sixth game of the final set.
Liam Broady was unable to build on his first-round success as he was defeated 6-4 6-2 by Tallon Griekspoor.
