Andy Murray has outlined the next goal he wants to achieve in tennis. The Brit certainly gave fans reasons to be positive about his 2023 campaign after some heroic performances at the Australian Open.
Although it ended in disappointment in the third round, his latest campaign at Melbourne Park, was closer to how he wants to play, and how he wants to compete in the twilight of his career. Moving forward, Murray’s immediate priority is to get his ranking up to a position where he will be seeded for tournaments. Despite his herculean efforts Down Under his ranking has only marginally improved and currently sits at 62 in the world.
“Obviously in the last few years some of the draws at the Slams have been very tricky," he said. "I was quite clear that it was something I wanted to do last year to try and get into the seeded spots. It didn't quite happen. If I was playing at this level last year, I probably wouldn't be ranked fifty or sixty in the world.” During the Grand Slam’s first week, Murray rolled back the years with an epic five-set win over Matteo Berrettini in the opening round.
He secured a win over a top 20 player at a grand slam for the first time since his hip problems began in 2017 in a 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-7 (7) 7-6 (6) victory after four hours and 49 minutes. Then in what is undoubtedly the match of the year so far, the Scot delivered a performance that defied his age and injury problems to emerge victorious in a thrilling second-round contest over Thansi Kokkinakis that lasted five hours and 45 minutes, and went on past 4am local time.
That made it the longest match of his incredible career as he continued his quest for an unlikely first Australian Open title, finally winning 4-6, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 7-5. But Murray's magical Melbourne Park campaign came to an end and looked physically exhausted as he fell to a 1-6, 7-6, 3-6, 4-6 third-round defeat to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut, that came just 39 hours after his second round win.
While he was pleased with his performances, Murray was left incandescent with officials after he was refused a toilet break in the fourth set of his second round clash. There is no protocol in place to implement a cut-off point for such late finishes, and Murray labelled the scheduling as a 'farce' in the immediate moments after the match.
"I don't know who it's beneficial for," Murray said on court. "We come here after the match and that's what the discussion is, rather than it being like, 'epic Murray-Kokkinakis match'. It ends in a bit of a farce."
However, Australian Open chief Craig Tiley insists there is "no need" to change the contentious tournament schedule. "At this point there is no need to alter the schedule,” the tournament director told Australia’s Channel Nine.
“We always look at it when we do the debrief like we do every year. At this point we’ve got to fit the matches in the 14 days. You don’t have many options.
“It was an epic match and when you schedule a match like that just before 10 in the evening, you’re not expecting it to go close to six hours.
“When you have 25 sessions, two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people coming through the gate, all the best players – 500 of them – in the world here, you’re going to have those moments.”
