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Defiantly defiant coming out of the Australian Open, Andy Murray recounted a day in the life of someone who has played tennis until four in the morning.
In the end, his comeback attempt from a five hour and 45 minute second round fell short. Unflinching baseline play from 24th seed Roberto Bautista-Agut saw the Spaniard prevail 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 against the fervent support of Murray, back at Margaret Court Arena.
The three and a half hours it took meant that, in total, he had spent just over fourteen hours on the court in five days, including the virtual night that ran through Friday.
Andy Murray has revealed his mixed emotions after crashing out of the Australian Open
Murray battled with foot and back pain during a 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 loss on Saturday.
Murray took the second set but Roberto Bautista Agut made sure there was no other miracle comeback
Murray detailed what he had done after that: “I slept from six to nine the morning I played the game with Kokkinakis, which is obviously not enough,” he said.
‘So I had to come here to Melbourne Park. I had about seven or eight blisters that should have been drained, and then he (the podiatrist) put this liquid on me to dry. I had to give that time to settle.
‘Then I went back to the hotel, slept for a few hours and yesterday I gained fifteen minutes. Just more ice baths, I saw my physio.
And then it had been time for him to go to bed early to try to prepare for his 7 pm game, and despite all his efforts, he hadn’t quite been ready.
I mean, my feet didn’t feel very good. My legs were actually fine, they weren’t that bad,” he said. But I was struggling with my lower back. That was affecting my serve. That was really the main thing I was struggling with today.
‘You do all you can do. You can’t always control the outcome. You can’t control how well you’re going to play or the outcome. You can control the effort you put into it, and I gave everything I had in the last three games. Lots of mixed emotions, but I’m very proud of that.’
Murray only slept for three hours after his second round win just two days earlier.
Murray sealed his fate by having to play two epics just to reach the third round in Melbourne
The hard analysis, beyond the arguments about the tournament schedule, is that Murray sealed his own fate by having to play two epics just to reach the third round. The Grand Slams are always unforgiving for those who work hard in the first matches.
However, this was closer to how Murray wants to play and how he wants to compete in what is undoubtedly the twilight of his career. “I would like to go out and play tennis like this, competing with the best players in the world in the biggest events and doing myself justice,” he said.
‘There were times in the last year where I didn’t really feel like I was playing well. But the sacrifices and that effort that I put in allowed me to get through these matches and play at a high level that I think was entertaining for the people watching.
“It’s more enjoyable for me when I play like this, when I come to a big event and really believe I can do some damage.”
Murray, a victim of scheduling, would like to see some weird tweak to the show.
“I think even tonight I’m competing against a guy ranked twenty in the world, and it’s still pretty tight considering the circumstances.”
It was a day when nearly 95,000 people turned out at Melbourne Park for the sessions, a reminder that there are many things this event gets right.
Murray, having been a victim of scheduling, would like to see some weird adjustment when it comes to the show.
‘I think the US Open happened to play two matches in the day session. That would prevent daytime matches from dragging on until the night session started too late. I think it’s quite simple that they (Australia) could consider, and they could bring the night sessions a little earlier,” he said.
Faced with another match of the night, Murray did his best to feed a 7,500 capacity crowd in the arena.
In fact, judging by the icy handshake at the end, the grimly determined Bautista-Agut hadn’t much appreciated his opponent’s gestures to the crowd.
“He understands the game very well and knows how to play with a crowd, how to play on the opponent’s nerves,” the Spaniard said later.
One such moment came when the 35-year-old Scotsman was enjoying his prime, turning around the 4-6 playoff with some wonderful combinations to take it to 8-7.
After committing a forehand error to level the match, Murray turned to the crowd and was defiant, whipping them almost to a frenzy.
However, it was too long back from the start that he had given the No. 24 seed, the same man who defeated him in 2019 after Murray publicly suggested his career was probably over.
Murray produced a resilient effort in the same place and against the same place when he thought his career was probably over in 2019.
The 29-minute first set suggested this was going to be a brief encounter, and it was only when the Spaniard began making repeated unforced errors midway through the second set that Murray was really able to get back in.
Upright, the British player’s serve was too compromised to apply enough pressure after that, though he did ignite hopes of another dramatic revival when he suffered a break early in the fourth.
‘Once I got to the rallies it wasn’t too bad, but my back was uncomfortable. I couldn’t really extend myself in my services. I couldn’t do a kick serve. I couldn’t really extend my back to generate a lot of power.
Murray limped afterwards, and now makes the long journey home leaving others to fight over the loot in the second week. His next tournament will be the ATP event in Rotterdam in mid-February, and he doesn’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be there.