Andy Murray had high hopes before coming to Washington however he stumbled in round one against Mikael Ymer 6-7(8) 6-4 1-6.
Ymer is a very tricky player who gets many balls back and covers the court well. He doesn't have a strong serve or strong groundstrokes but they are quite precise making things a bit complicated. It was a terrible matchup for Murray on paper and it proved a nightmare on the court. The rallies were long, Murray was losing patience too often and he threw away plenty of chances.
Murray was very shaky to start it. He dropped his serve in the first game of the match but broke back immediately. After saving one break point, Murray lost his serve once more but broke back once more as well. After squandering a set point, Murray had to play the tiebreak and he was better early. A 3-1 lead that became a 6-4 lead with a couple of set points.
He would have 3 overall in the tiebreak but use neither as Ymer converted his second one 10-8. The 2nd set featured solid play by Ymer as the Swede was up a break early 3-1. Murray countered furiously winning four games in a row to take a 5-3 lead and finish off the set 6-4. However, the comeback never happened. Rushing too much early on, Ymer was able to take an early 2-0 break.
From there Murray's game fell apart as he found himself down 0-4 soon after. Murray did pull one break back to make it 1-4 but lost his serve once more which cemented the win for Ymer.