MELBOURNE, Australia — (AP) — Steel hip, bloody knee and all, Andy Murray produced his greatest victory in years.
Murray constructed an enormous lead, let it disappear fully, then wanted to save lots of a match level in opposition to Matteo Berrettini — who is sort of a full decade youthful and ranked greater than 50 locations greater — earlier than managing to drag out a 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (10-6) triumph throughout greater than 4 1/2 epic hours on Tuesday within the Australian Open’s first spherical.
“The previous few years, I’ve actually questioned myself at occasions. There’s actually lots of people (who) questioned me and my skill, whether or not I might nonetheless carry out on the greatest occasions and the most important matches,” mentioned the 35-year-old Murray, a former No. 1 now ranked No. 66. “I felt very pleased with myself after the match. That’s not one thing that I usually felt over time on the finish of tennis matches.”
This was the three-time main champion’s first defeat of a top-20 opponent at a Grand Slam match since 2017. That was earlier than Murray thought he would wish to retire — and even was given a profession send-off at Melbourne Park in 2019, when he exited within the first spherical a yr after his first hip operation.
After a second surgical procedure inserted a synthetic hip, Murray determined to attempt to proceed taking part in. This type of night was probably what he had in thoughts when he pressed on — and when he spent three weeks in Boca Raton, Florida, practising beneath the tutelage of coach Ivan Lendl throughout the offseason.
“I’ve put loads of work into the previous couple of months with my workforce to provide me the chance to carry out on stadiums like this, in matches like this, in opposition to gamers like Matteo,” Murray informed a crowd that roared with approval for him. “And it paid off tonight.”
Oh, sure, what a efficiency it was, full of the type of grit that outlined a lot of Murray’s time on tour, that carried him to championships on the U.S. Open in 2012 and at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and to 2 Olympic singles gold medals.
Murray can be a five-time runner-up at Melbourne Park, with 4 losses within the closing to Novak Djokovic and one to Roger Federer.
“He is an awesome champion. I mentioned it so many occasions,” mentioned Berrettini, an Italian who is without doubt one of the gamers chronicled within the new “Break Level” Netflix docuseries. “Personally, was nice to play with that ambiance in opposition to him. Only a nice match. Sadly it did not go my means.”
There have been moments Tuesday when Murray performed as he did a very long time in the past, diving to hit a volley earlier than slamming to the blue courtroom — scraping his proper leg — or sprinting to someway attain seemingly unreachable photographs, then wanting up into the stands at Lendl and shaking a fist whereas yelling, “Let’s go! Come on now!”
Murray raced by means of the primary two units in lower than 1 1/2 hours earlier than the big-hitting, big-serving Berrettini turned issues round and took the match to a fifth, even coming inside one level of victory at 5-4 in that set however faltering and flubbing a simple backhand.
By beating the Thirteenth-seeded Berrettini, who was the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2021, Murray turned solely the fifth man within the Open period with 50 match wins on the Australian Open, becoming a member of Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal and Stefan Edberg.
They performed beneath a closed roof at Rod Laver Enviornment due to temperatures that soared as much as 100 levels Fahrenheit (38 levels Celsius) and precipitated suspensions of play that lasted hours in matches on smaller courts that may’t be coated. Later, a rainstorm got here, creating one other pause within the motion.
This was the most-anticipated match of the afternoon session and lasted so lengthy it completed after 7 p.m. native time, most positively dwelling as much as the hype.
“A number of the tennis on the finish was actually good,” Murray mentioned. “It felt like that taking part in; I don’t know what it appeared like.”
Regarded terrific, Andy.
It was troublesome to think about that the evening session matches scheduled to observe in Laver — the primary involving the No. 2-seeded lady, Ons Jabeur, and the second that includes nine-time champion Djokovic’s return to the Australian Open after he was deported from the nation a yr in the past for not being vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 — might presumably equal the depth and drama that Murray and Berrettini delivered.
They concluded with the first-to-10-points, win-by-2 tiebreaker system that every one Grand Slam occasions adopted for the fifth units of males’s matches and third units of ladies’s. Murray mentioned it was his first expertise with that comparatively new format.
Make no mistake: He was much better in that decisive part of the match, leaping out to leads of 5-0 and 8-3. It led to a little bit of anticlimactic style: Murray’s service return clipped the web wire and trickled over for a winner.
“Only a bit fortunate on the finish,” mentioned Murray, who subsequent will meet Thanasi Kokkinakis or Fabio Fognini.
Murray has questioned aloud whether or not all the work he put in to get again to a stage of play that glad him was value it.
“I want to provide myself some credit score, as a result of the previous couple of years have been robust,” Murray mentioned. “I’ve misplaced just a few of these matches, these sort of matches, within the Slams the final couple years.”
He arrived in Australia having misplaced within the first or second spherical in seven of his 9 most up-to-date Grand Slam appearances. The opposite two ended within the third spherical.
For now, this one continues.
“It’s spectacular what he might do after so many surgical procedures, after all of the kilometers that he ran in his profession. It’s spectacular,” Berrettini mentioned. “It simply exhibits how a lot he loves the sport, how a lot he loves these form of matches.”
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Related Press freelancer Simon Cambers contributed to this report.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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