Melbourne (Australia), Jan 17 (EFE) first round match that lasted 4 hours and 54 minutes and in which he beat Italian Matteo Berrettini, thirteenth seed, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7) and 7-6 ( 6).
“I am very proud of myself. I have worked a lot with my team to be able to play like this in these types of scenarios, ”he commented on the court after closing the game with a cut return that touched the net and bounced twice on the Italian side.
This put an end to a battle that lasted close to five hours and in which an aggressive Berrettini, who connected 31 direct aces and 72 ‘winners’, was not able to crack the security of the Scotsman, who committed 17 unforced errors less than his rival.
Murray won the first two sets with one and two breaks per set. In the second he did not concede a single ‘break’ point.
But in the next two the Italian was unapproachable to serve and restored equality.
Murray, with a bloody knee and signs of exhaustion, gripped the court in the fifth-and battled for every ball, even saving a match point, before gasping for breath in the tiebreaker game. they went ahead 5-0 and eventually won 10-6.
With this epic victory, the Scottish player equaled his record from last year, when he lost in second against the Japanese Taro Daniel, and will have the opportunity to improve it in a match that will also face Italian Fabio Fognini or Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The man from Glasgow became the fifth man in the Open Era to reach fifty victories on the banks of the Yarra and joined the privileged group made up of the Swiss Roger Federer (102), the Serbian Novak Djokovic (82), the Spanish Rafael Nadal ( 77) and the Swede Stefan Edberg (56).
(c) EFE Agency
