Back from the dead, Murray spooks Berrettini

Andy Murray had his best win since he “retired”, forging and then forfeiting a two-set lead before outliving Italian Matteo Berrettini’s match point against him to prevail in a fifth-set super tie-breaker 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (10-6) on Tuesday, the first the great Scotsman has played.

This was Murray’s first win over a top-20 player at a major championship since 2017. Their duel lasted all but five hours, making it the second-longest match Murray has ever played in his 18-year association with the Australian Open. So did Murray wind back the clock almost to the analogue era.

Andy Murray celebrates match point.Credit:Getty Images

“Tomorrow, I’ll be very tired. Right now, I’m unbelievably happy, very proud of myself,” Murray said immediately afterwards. “We’ve put a lot of work in in the last few months to be able to play matches like that against players like him, and it paid off.”

Murray’s retirement was a postmodern construct. In 2019, he was so bodily banged up that after a first-round defeat in this tournament, he was serenaded by the tennis world, which all but presented him with pipe, slippers and golf clubs. He was only 31, but he was facing hip replacement surgery and could not say for sure himself if he would be able to play again.

He did, obviously, but has dwelled since in a kind of tennis bardo, suspended somewhere between death and new life. He picked up estimable wins here and there, but had won only seven times in major tournaments since his near-retirement experience, and won on these courts only once since 2017. Melbourne Park always was bittersweet for him anyway; he has lost five finals here.

Though he would protest the idea, he exists on the tour as a kind of loveable ghost. He has said that he would keep playing as long as he thought he was progressing. In the last year, he could quantify it, levering himself up from No.135 in the world to 66 now.

He had lost his only previous match in Australia this season, to up-and-comer Sebastian Korda in Adelaide. But camp followers reported an upbeat and loose-looking Murray last week at the glorified hit-up that is the Kooyong Classic. Exactly what constitutes loose for the always lugubrious Scotsman was not made explicit.

Berrettini was an unlikely patsie this day. He has hovered in Australia’s consciousness as the recent ex-boyfriend of post-Barty big hope Ajla Tomljanovic, and as a Netflix star, but came with a respectable CV of his own.

After reaching the semi-finals here last year before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal, he was ranked No.6 in the world.

Injury and illness largely cruelled the rest of his year – not before a win over Murray at the US Open – but at No.14 and seeded 13 here, he was a formidable first-round opponent for Murray, who he had beaten in their last three encounters. More properly, in tennis’ scheme of things, Murray was a tricky first-up opponent for Berrettini.

By the time they took the court at Rod Laver Arena, play on outside courts had been suspended because of the heat, meaning that all eyes not watering in the 36-degree swelter turned to Murray again. It must have felt like the good old days to Murray. It became a very good type of old day.

For Berrettini, it was neither the day he hoped for, nor expected once the roof was closed. “It was cold,” he said. Naturally, this meant that ball bounced and flew differently. But Berrettini said it was a tennis player’s obligation to adapt. “I have to say Andy handled the situation better,” he said. “He loves to play these kinds of matches. He’s a great champion, as I’ve said many times.”

Murray broke Berrettini at the first opportunity in each of the first two sets and that was enough to win both. Murray’s winning tactic then was to serve consistently wide to Berrettini, one of few players who plays a one-handed backhand.

Of Murray’s once funereal demeanour, there was no trace. Perhaps he had been born again. “Funereal” would not really work after one’s metaphorical funeral anyway.

Early in the third set, Murray had two separate points for a break, but could not consummate them. From there, Berrettini asserted himself with his serve and levelled up the contest on the court and in due course on the scoreboard. Murray would not break Berrettini’s serve again.

It wasn’t that Murray’s game withered, but that Berrettini lifted his. One break of serve was enough to win him the third set, but there was no break in the fourth; each had all the answers to the other. Berrettini’s three aces in the tie-breaker outweighed some remarkable Murray scrambling.

As is often the way, desperation fathered inspiration in the fifth set. Murray reprised all the tricks he had as the player who kept Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic honest all those years. But whatever he could conjure by way of groundstrokes, Berrettini countervailed with his serve.

Andy Murray shakes hands with Matteo Berrettini after the match.Credit:Getty Images

“Some of the tennis at the end was really good,” Murray said by way of Caledonian understatement. “It felt like that as a player. I don’t know what it looked like!”

It looked breathtaking, but it also looked like Berrettini’s advantage in age and power would carry the day. Besides, he has his own pride, and finesse enough, too. In the 10th game, he had a match point but blew it, rushing a backhand at the net.

In the tie-breaker, Murray reached deep into his heart and his history and sped to a 5-0 lead. It was a handicap Berrettini could not make good.

“Last year, I won 7-6 in the fifth. This year, I lost 7-6 in the fifth,” he said. “That’s tennis.”

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