If we had been told that Andy Murray, three victories and 36 Grand Slam finals, would convert into Fabrice Santoro to make us vibrate on the first extended laps, we would not have believed it. But we take. The Scot defeated Matteo Berrettini in five sets and nearly five hours of play in the first round of the Australian Open. As a bonus, he even saved a match point. Great art, if we ignore the fact that Murray was leading two sets to zero before getting into trouble.
“I will feel it pass tonight and tomorrow, but right now I am incredibly happy and proud of myself,” commented the five-time finalist in Melbourne (2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016).
“I have worked a lot in recent months to be able to play at this level in stadiums like this (the Rod Laver Arena), in matches like this, against players like Matteo”, underlined the player of 35 years.
Berrettini misses the inevitable on match point
Under the eyes of his coach Ivan Lendl, winner of the Australian Major in 1989 and 1990, Murray saved a match point at 5-4 on his serve in the fifth set before benefiting from the help of the net on the match point of the “super tie-break”. The Italian will remember for a very long time this badly played backhand cross on a rise to the net yet perfect.
Berrettini, almost ten years younger and semi-finalist last year, nevertheless played very well from the third set and was able to rely on his enormous serve (31 aces, including 10 in the fifth set alone) and on his power in general (72 winning shots including 18 in the deciding round). But he ended up breaking down mentally.
Andy Murray will face the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (159th) or another Italian, Fabio Fognini (57th) on Thursday.