Andy Murray: ‘It could have been a slightly different outcome’

Andy Murray is back. The British had already anticipated it in the preview of the Australian Open, where he assured that on this occasion he already felt ready to face the best, and it is a reality. The multiple Grand Slam winner had a tough test against one of the main favourites, the Italian Matteo Berrettini, whom he beat in a marathon match of almost five hours on court with partial scores of 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 and 7-6. Both players engaged in a real battle. Neither gave their opponent any respite. Murray prevailed in the first two rounds with some ease, and when his physical condition was expected to decline, he held on to stay in contention. In the end there were two tiebreaks, each one winning one of them, so that in the end the British settled in the second round. “I invested months of work to be able to be here, play matches like this and be able to beat players like Matteo,” said the double Olympic champion on the court. He is now waiting for the winner of the duel between the Italian Fabio Fognini and the Australian Thanasis Kokkinakis. He was not the only player from his country to emerge victorious on Day 2 of the first Grand Slam of the season. Previously, he had already won his compatriot Daniel Evans, in his case 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and 6-4 against Argentine Facundo Bagnis. Already in the previous day he had met Cameron Norrie’s forecast, while Jack Draper stayed on the road. How far do you see Andy Murray going at the 2023 Australian Open?

Andy Murray is back

Andy Murray mentioned that he was “unbelievably happy” and “proud of himself”. “I’m just unbelievably happy, very proud of myself. I’ve put a lot of work in for the last few months with my team, who are here, to give me the opportunity to perform on stadiums like this, in matches like this, against players like Matteo. It paid off tonight,” he said. “I mean, reflecting on the match, yeah, I haven’t had loads of time to digest it but I think it was a really good match. I think I did very well to hang in at the end because it could have got away from me with the way that he was serving and the way he was playing,” Murray noted. “But, yeah, on the whole, I felt like I created enough chances to win the match. Had I picked one of the break points early in the third, it could have been a slightly different outcome. Yeah, well, it felt to me that we played some really good tennis at times. Yeah, really happy to get through,” he added.