CNN
—
Andy Murray won an epic five-set battle with No. 13 Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday in the first round of the 2023 Australian Open.
The three-time Grand Slam winner had to save a match point in the final set and rallied in the deciding tiebreaker to win 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (10-6) in Rod Laver Arena.
After years of battling devastating injuries that put his tennis career at risk, Murray struggled to contain his emotions immediately after his feat came to light.
The epic four-hour-and-49-minute win was Murray’s first victory over a top-20 opponent at a Grand Slam since 2017.
“I’m going to feel that tonight and tomorrow, but right now I’m incredibly happy, very proud of myself,” Murray said in his on-court interview afterwards.
“I’ve worked a lot over the past few months with my team here to give myself the opportunity to play in stadiums like this and in games like this against players like Matteo, and it paid off tonight.”
Murray and Berrettini’s first-round draw was comfortably the showpiece of the first set of fixtures – and it didn’t disappoint.
Murray, 35, took an early two-set lead, using his sliced shots to keep last year’s semi-finalist out of control.
But the Italian showed the grit and class for which he has become known to slowly but surely bring Murray back, before leveling the scores at two sets apiece.
The deciding set went with the serve, as both players tried to pounce on their opponent’s mistakes with their two impressive serves.
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As Berrettini took a 5-4 lead and Murray served to stay in the game, the Scot had to dodge a match point to hold serve and stay in the game.
And in the tiebreaker – played to 10 points in a deciding set – Murray looked back at his best, taking a big lead before finally heading for a famous victory.
It was Murray’s 50th victory at the Australian Open and one of his most memorable, even for someone who has reached the tournament final five times before.
“It’s the first time I’ve played one of those 10-point tiebreakers,” Murray said. “It’s a little different. When you’re up 6-1, or 7-1 or whatever, you feel like you’re still pretty far behind. He came back really strong and I was just a little lucky at the end with the net cord,” he added of his match point return, which dribbled across the net.
Murray added: “I think in the end some of the tennis was really good. It was like it was playing, I don’t know what it was like. He served amazingly and he’s also a brilliant competitor, one of the best competitors on the Tour. He always fights to the end, so I did well to pull through.
Murray will now face Thanasi Kokkinakis or Fabio Fognini in the second round on Thursday.
