Andy Murray Is the Australian Open's Unexpected Marathon Man
The three-time major champion has gutted out two surprising victories and played more than 10 hours of tennis en route to the third round. How much further can he go?
Jon Wertheim: This marks the fourth anniversary of Andy Murray’s quasi-retirement. His cheerful exit from the 2019 Australian Open, when the tournament went so far as to produce a farewell video, well…how silly that looks today. Murray never formally retired. He underwent a hip resurfacing procedure and struggled to return. But now, four years later, he’s still going. He won a first round match that spanned nearly five hours. And now he’s managed to outdo himself in the second round, looking more like the player who once became number one than the 35 year-old father of four with a metal hip.
He turned in one of the more enthralling matches of his career, beating Australian Thanasi Kokkanakis 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 7-5. The whole thing took nearly six hours and ended around 4 a.m. local time.
After his first-round win over Matteo Berrettini, Murray, uncharacteristically, said he was proud of himself and deserved to win. You could only imagine his reflections on this follow-up victory. He won this match playing usual Murray tennis. Playing chess to his opponent’s checkers. This was Murray at his best strategically and his best—at least in recent years—physically. How gratifying it must feel to have played more than 10 hours of tennis in two rounds at a major and not have a loss to show for it? You also can’t ignore the presence of Ivan Lendl in the Murray camp. One of Lendl’s big priorities was to get Murray to hit bigger. And it was clear, on both his serve and his groundstrokes, that Murray was using more force in this match.
Chris Almeida: I think it's an interesting pattern—or, at least an interesting few occurrences over the last two majors—to see that some of the most impactful matches we’ve seen haven’t come in the second week. We've gotten a lot of run from legends who are not at their best still gutting out a couple really tough matches in the first or second rounds. And that’s great.
It is still hard to see Murray going much further in this tournament. Kokkinakis, we know, is obviously a very talented player, but he's unseeded for a reason. He’s sporadic. You’re never sure what you’re going to get from him when he’s under pressure. And you mention that Murray looked great physically, but that’s all with a caveat. You're watching the end of this nearly six hour match, and Andy Murray looks like he’s moving incredibly…for a guy with a metal hip. If this was 2013, we would probably have said his movement actually looked quite concerning.
And so, it’s hard to believe that like one round after this… two rounds after this… three rounds after this that his game is going to be able to hold up, especially against more reliable opponents. So I don't think anybody is expecting him to go on and win this tournament. But Andy Murray is a fan favorite. He’s a good guy. He’s a fun tennis player to watch who has given us, as both fans and media, a lot over the course of his long career. So if he wants to gut it out to try and reach the second week, good for him.
JW: Exactly. Is he going to win this tournament? Probably not. Is he going to reach his sixth Australian Open final? Also probably not. But he’s validated his decision not to retire back in 2019 and is reminding us why he’s such a special player.