Kyle Edmund makes a winning return at Citi Open, notching first ATP win since 2020 US Open

Kyle Edmund moved into the second round of the Citi Open by beating Japanese qualifier Yosuke Watanuki 6-4, 7-6 (8) at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center in Washington on Monday evening.

Edmund, who has undergone three knee surgeries since 2020, is finally back on the ATP Tour – he played his first tour-level match since the fall of 2020 on Monday in D.C.

“It’s just very rewarding,” said Edmund after the match. “There were long periods where I was just out, couldn’t play, didn’t pick a racquet up for five months – it wasn’t fun at all.

“These sort of matches and these events are something you imagine, when you’re out, being there. I watched too many matches on TV. I always pictured myself being out here and today I was out here playing my first tour event in a very long time.” 

The former world No 14 is taking it one step at a time as he returns to the sport. He says he missed the buzz of playing on the big stages while he was out.

“It showed me that I loved the game,” he told the ATP. “If I didn’t love it, it would have been easy to walk away. There were plenty of opportunities to do that.”

Edmund saved five of six break points and rebounded from 4-2 down in the second set to clinch his victory in two hours and one minute.

He converted his third match point in the tiebreak.

“I didn’t find it easy today, he’s a tricky player, very energetic,” he said of Watanuki. “I just kept in there and I just told myself that I’ve been out too long and worked too hard just to not be there. Even the second set, I went down very quickly. I just sort of hung in there, and got my reward in the end.

“It’s something that you miss, just feeling the buzz, hearing the crowd, it sounds weird, even just playing tennis when there’s pressure – it’s great to be playing, there are some things I need to do better but you only get better by putting yourself in these situations, and just experiencing it and keep learning from it.” 

Washington ATP 500, other first-round matches (Rock Creek Park Tennis Center, hard, USD 2.108.110, most recent results first):

• Mackenzie McDonald vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
• Sebastian Korda vs. Ilya Ivashka
• Nick Kyrgios vs. Marcos Giron
• Benjamin Bonzi vs. Christopher Eubanks
• Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Jenson Brooksby
• David Goffin vs. Jack Sock
• Peter Gojowczyk vs. Benoit Paire
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Bradley Klahn
• Stefan Kozlov vs. Jack Draper
• Andy Murray vs. Mikael Ymer
• Tung-lin Wu vs. Alexei Popyrin
• James Duckworth vs. Borna Gojo
• J.J. Wolf vs. Taro Daniel
• Denis Kudla vs. Michael Mmoh: monday
• Dominik Koepfer vs. SoonWoo Kwon: monday