Kokkinakis’s tearful four-word message after Andy Murray’s comeback

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Thanasi Kokkinakis has taken to social media with a short but poignant message summing up how he’s feeling after suffering a heartbreaking loss to British sporting icon Andy Murray at the Australian Open. It looked as though Murray was heading out of the tournament in a straightforward defeat as Kokkinakis raced to a two-set lead.

But Murray has proven over the years that he’s never one to be counted, even despite being 35 years of age and playing with a metal hip. Still, the task at hand was a monumental one at that and it required Murray to arguably dig deeper than he ever has.

After going a break down in the third set, Murray appeared to finally find his groove and began to trouble Kokkinakis. The Aussie lost his cool at times as he tried to see out the match with Murray refusing to go away.

Both players were playing high-level tennis with some breathtaking defensive skills on show along with some epic winners. Murray ended up being able to force a fourth set, and then it almost felt inevitable a fifth set was coming.

Play continued late into the morning – the match finished after 4am in Melbourne – and both of them were still going hammer and tong. It soon passed the longest-ever match of Murray’s career and then he was able to get the break of serve he had so desperately been fighting for.

That left Kokkinakis deflated as he slumped to his feet and he was unable to break back as Murray hit a stunning backhand winner to end the match after five hours and 45 minutes. The talented Aussie left the court almost in tears, carrying his broken racket as he exited the Margaret Court Arena to a standing ovation from those who stayed until the end.

But that defeat is going to take some time to get over for Kokkinakis after he held a two-set lead and looked in cruise control.

And he took to Twitter to sum up his feelings in the immediate aftermath of the match.

He simply wrote: “This f***ing sport man.”

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