Andy Murray is no stranger to Australian Open heartache and, three years after his last appearance in Melbourne, his tournament came to a premature end today.
Five times a beaten finalist, in 2019 Murray stepped off court after a first-round defeat thinking his career was quite conceivably at an end.
Rebuilt and having seemingly regained his best form since that point, there were high hopes after knocking out Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening round.
Quite how much that five-set marathon took out of the Briton is unclear but his movement was a little off and, while he promised at times to move into the ascendancy against qualifier Taro Daniel, in the end it proved a straight-sets 6-4 6-4 6-4 defeat.
On paper, the pair were evenly matched: Murray at 113rd in the world to his Japanese opponent’s 120th and yet the expectation was that Murray would come out on top, as much down to his past glories – the three Grand Slam titles and two Olympic titles – than the actual reality of the situation.
Daniel has been enjoying some of the best form of his career in 2022 and he did well to curtail the Murray resurgence on John Cain Arena.
This had all the hallmarks of the customary Murray self-flagellation - the mumbling, grumbling, remonstrating with his team and taking umbrage with both his racket and his trainers at various points throughout the night.
But, in truth, he was simply outplayed for the duration of the match by Daniel in arguably one of the best individual performances of his career.
Even late into the contest when Daniel looked physically exhausted, he still managed to reach into his reserves to keep Murray at bay and reach a Grand Slam third round for the first time.
There was no denying who was the crowd favourite from the outset, Murray having enjoyed such consistent results at the Australian Open over the years.
But throughout the night, Daniel, one of the game’s nomads having been born in the US, moved to Japan and then relocated to Spain as a teenager to pursue his tennis ambitions, did the basics well, in many ways outdoing Murray at his own game.
He surprisingly moved into the ascendancy as he broke Murray in a marathon 11-minute third game of the match. Murray forced his way back into the tie to level at three apiece only to be broken straight back on a double fault. Daniel then rounded off the set with an ace.
Set two ended in exactly the same fashion, leaving Murray with an almighty mountain to climb. Since his comeback, he has won just one of the four Grand Slam matches in which he lost the opening set.
The only time he had been successful was against another Japanese opponent in Yoshihito Nishioka, against whom he went two sets behind at last year’s US Open.
For a time, a comeback looked on the cards, the spectators, Murray’s box and the player himself willing him to do so.
But he was not quite able to muster the big points when it mattered nor cement his advantage when the breaks came as it did when he broke his opponent in only the second game of that third set. That was only the second break point he had converted in 10.
Having worked so hard to get himself back in the match, he was duly broken back courtesy of a double fault.
Such was the frustration for the former world No1, he received a code violation for throwing his racket when he was broken for a second time in the set after which Daniel coolly served for the match.
Afterwards, Daniel said: “Winning a match like this with a lot of people and playing without crowds. Suddenly able to play this match, it’s unbelievable. I was getting pretty nervous in the third set and cramping a little bit.”
