The recent retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams have ensured that many will be looking to see which all-time great is next. However, he is extremely difficult to play against, with huge weapons, considerable mental strength and a tendency to play his best tennis in grand slam tournaments. Berrettini is still searching for rhythm himself, after undergoing hand surgery last year, contracting Covid on the eve of Wimbledon and pulling out of the final months of 2022 because of a foot injury. Whether Murray’s optimism will yield a positive result on Tuesday remains to be seen. “It’s the first time in a while where I’ve had six, seven weeks of work uninterrupted by anything, so I feel like I was able to make some improvements in the off-season and feel a bit more comfortable with my game.” “There was some stuff in my game I was struggling with for large parts of last year, so obviously I worked on that a lot in the off-season,” he said. Now he feels he is moving as well as he has done since his hip surgery. Afterwards, Murray expressed dissatisfaction at his training and preparation. He had finished the year with perhaps one of his worst performances over the past four years, losing to Gilles Simon in the Frenchman’s final tournament, after serving for an easy win. The source of Murray’s confidence rests in a solid off-season. During the US hard-court swing, Murray struggled badly with cramp in every warm-up tournament. For example, Murray’s grass-court season had started with a brilliant run to the final in Stuttgart but he sustained an abdominal injury during the third set of his match with Berrettini, which halted his momentum heading to Wimbledon. This Australian Open marks one of the few times in recent years that Murray has arrived at a grand slam tournament without any physical issue nestled in the back of his mind. I feel well prepared, I feel ready to play a top player early in the event, whereas maybe last year at times my game didn’t feel that great.” “But I also feel like I’m in a much better place than where I was during any of the slams last year coming into it. He will face Matteo Berrettini, last year’s semi-finalist and the 2021 runner-up at Wimbledon, in the first round.ĭespite the difficult draw, Murray betrayed no frustration in his pre-tournament press conference. On Thursday, he will take on the winner of Athanasios Kokkinakis and Fabio Fognini in the next round.On the eve of the Australian Open, his unseeded status handed him one of the toughest possible draws at the tournament. He always fights right to the end, so I did well to get through,” Murray concluded. He was serving unbelievably, and he’s also a brilliant competitor, one of the best competitors on the Tour. “I think at the end some of the tennis was good. He came back really strong, and I was just a bit lucky at the end with the net cord,” he added of his return on match point, which dribbled over the net,” added Murray. When you’re up 6/1, or 7/1 or whatever, it feels like you’re still quite far away. “That’s the first time I’ve ever played one of those 10-point tie-breakers. I’ve put a lot of work into the past few months with my team here to allow me to perform on stadiums like this and in matches like this against players like Matteo, and it paid off tonight.”ĪLSO READ: Australian Open 2023 - Needed this win, says Nadal after he begins title defence with win over Draper Murray said about his conquest, “I’ll be feeling this evening and tomorrow, but I’m just unbelievably happy, very proud of myself. It was the first Top 20 triumph for the former five-time AO runner-up in over four years, while the match lasted four hours and 49 minutes. It was a five-set thriller, where the two sorted things out in a tie-breaker in the last couple of sets, and the Brit prevailed, winning 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(10-5). Up against 13th seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy, it was an improbable task for both men, as the two rightfully put on a show at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Tuesday. Former three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray of Great Britain was off to a resounding start in the 2023 Australian Open.
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