Andy Murray believes the manner of his second-round victory over Kyle Edmund at the Citi Open was just as important as the result.

The former world No 1 prevailed 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 in an all-British battle to clinch the biggest win since his comeback from hip surgery.

Latest Andy Murray comeback begins with tough win in Washington Read more

“It was much better, just in terms of the way I actually played the match,” Murray told the ATP official website after victory in Washington DC.



“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.”

Murray, now 832nd in the world rankings, was facing the man who replaced him as British No1 and gained a measure of revenge for his straight-sets defeat to Edmund at Eastbourne in June.



Murray won the opening set against Edmund after taking the tie-break 7-4 . Both players had held serve until the 11th game, when Edmund broke Murray to take a 6-5 lead, but the Scot hit back immediately to force the tie-break, and won it with three consecutive points from 4-4.

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Edmund hit back to race through the second set 6-1 and level the match, breaking Murray twice in the process. The third set followed the pattern of the first, with both players holding serve through to 5-4, before Murray pounced to break serve and win the match.

Edmund said: “I gave my best of what I had on the day today. Just didn’t work out. It would have been nice to hold serve and maybe even control what I can and take [the third set] to a tie-break but it didn’t happen.”

Murray will take on Marius Copil in the last 16 after the Romanian knocked out Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-4. Elsewhere in the draw, Alex Zverev will face his brother Mischa after both players came through their second-round ties.