MELBOURNE, Australia —
Andy Murray said that the
injury hell which nearly forced him into retirement now seemed worth all the
pain after battling to his first win at the
Australian Open since 2017 on
Tuesday.
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The three-time Grand Slam champion, playing with a metal hip
following career-saving surgery in 2019, heroically emerged victorious from
five epic sets against 21st seed
Nikoloz Basilashvili.
The 34-year-old Murray wrestled with the big-hitting
Georgian for almost four hours before claiming his place in the second round,
where he will face Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel.
Scotland's Murray, ranked 113 and playing as a tournament
wild card, showed his trademark fighting spirit to edge home in the gripping
final set and clinch a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 victory.
It was his first match at the Australian Open since 2019,
when he went out in the first round. He made a tearful exit and it was thought
that it might be his farewell. He had surgery on his hip weeks later, his career
at stake.
"I think winning matches like today and competing
against guys that are around 20-25 in the rankings, yeah, I'm proud of
that," Murray, a former world number one, said.
"It's not easy. I put a lot of work and effort in. Even
since the operation I've had various issues as well. Kept going and, yeah, days
like today make it worthwhile."
Of his return to the court that conjured painful memories of
his last tilt at the Australian Open, Murray added: "I don't think much
about what happened three years ago. I know you'd probably like me to say
something different, but that's the truth."
His nail-biting victory over Basilashvili continued an
intense rivalry between the pair, with Murray rallying from a set down to
defeat him last week in Sydney and also prevailing over four sets in the first
round at Wimbledon last year.
- Thundering groundstrokes -
Murray grabbed the opening set with the loss of just one
game, but Basilashvili leveled it up with the second set, before trading blows
with the wily Scot in the third.
Basilashvili was hammering his groundstrokes and Murray had
to use all his guile and guts to get the ball back in play and work for an
opening.
They went to a deciding set after Basilashvili refused to go
quietly, winning a titanic tiebreaker in the fourth set.
The Georgian began the final set poorly, falling behind 0-40
on serve and netting a backhand to hand Murray a break.
But yet again Basilashvili refused to give in and broke back
to level at 4-4.
Murray held serve and then got to 0-40 on Basilashvili's
service in the 10th game before taking the epic, to crowd pandemonium inside
the arena.
Murray lost to
Roger Federer once in the final of the
Australian Open and four times to Novak Djokovic.
But Murray is a three-time Grand Slam champion, winning the
2012 US Open, and the following year he became the first British man to win the
Wimbledon singles crown in 77 years. He won it again in 2016.
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