Over on the women’s side, Sabalenka, champion in Adelaide, maintained her unbeaten start to the year with a straightforward win. Other men advancing on a start-stop day were: Britain’s Dan Evans, Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, American Taylor Fritz and Germany’s Alexander Zverev. Rublev will now play either Australian qualifier Max Purcell or Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland. Obviously not the best timing and in the middle of the second set, but it is what it is,” he said after his 3-6, 4-6, 2-6 defeat. Then I went out, and the physio said that the ribs are fine, it’s just a little inflammation or a little strain. The sun was - I was in a tough position to serve, so I completely changed the toss, and something happened after at the abs or at the ribs. “It happened at one serve in the second set. To compound his physical duress, there was a rib/abdomen issue in the second set. First, No 2 seed Ons Jabeur beat Tamara Zidansek 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 and then Djokovic, in his return to the Australian Open, had his left thigh taped up but still moved convincingly – dropping just four points in the third set.ĭjokovic received a loud and warm reception from the fans – many carrying Serbian flags and chants of “Idemo” on multiple moments in the match.Įarlier, Thiem, a 2020 US Open champion, two-time French Open finalist and once at Melbourne Park, on the mend since undergoing a wrist surgery was taken out in straight sets. The matches that followed on Rod Laver Arena tried to live up to the sensational hype created by this contest and came close. The win was Murray’s 50th match win at the Australian Open – fifth to get to the milestone in the Open Era after Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Stefan Edberg. The edge-of-the-seat clash ended in rather anticlimactic fashion with Murray’s return hitting the top of the net and rolling over – much to Berrettini’s frustration. Murray, playing his first such format, took a 5-0 lead and then 8-3. With the match reaching 6-6, a first-to-10 points tiebreak was needed. Eventually, Matteo created a chance of his own, ran forward to a poor drop shot but sent his backhand flush into the net. In the fifth set, Murray came within two points of closing the match out but Berrettini kept him at arm’s length. Murray raced through the first two sets briskly, taking just an-hour-and-a-half, but Berrettini turned things around to force a decider. Unfortunately it didn’t go my way,” said Berrettini who lost a five-set match after winning four in a row. Personally, was great to play with that atmosphere against him. I mean, he loves to play these kind of matches. I knew it would have been a tough first round. I mean, it wasn’t a secret, his returning is one of the best on tour. He was moving way better, hitting the ball better. He underwent a second surgery to get a metal hip inserted – potentially for days like today.īerrettini, who is nearly a decade younger than Murray, admired the 66th ranked player’s effort. This was Murray’s first win over a top-20 player at a major since 2017. Kokkinakis led Fognini by two sets to love before play was suspended. “I did well to get through,” said Murray who will face either Fabio Fognini or Thanasi Kokkinakis in the next round. I’ve put a lot of work into the last few months with my team to give me this opportunity to perform in stadiums like this, in matches like this and against players like Matteo - and it paid off tonight.” “But right now unbelievably happy and proud of myself. “I will be feeling this this evening and tomorrow,” the five-time Australian Open finalist, who plays with a metal hip after undergoing career-saving surgery, said. Berrettini shanked a backhand into the net on match point opportunity and Murray closed it out with a net cord.īy the end of it, Murray, who was given a standing ovation and a farewell by this very crowd in 2019, was up on its feet again applauding a stupendous performance four years on. The former World No 1 and three-time Grand Slam winner had luck go his way, too, after years of misfortune. He ran extreme lengths of the court, pounced on every drop shot, dived for a volley and had a bloody knee as a result. Murray produced his biggest Grand Slam victory in years and did his all to get there.
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