- Murray overcomes Italian 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in first spherical
- Jack Draper steams previous Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-3, 6-2
Wed 20 Mar 2024 23.52 CET
In a season the place wins have been extraordinarily arduous to return by, Andy Murray was rewarded for his perseverance in a brutal first-round match on the Miami Open as he recovered from a set all the way down to outlast Matteo Berrettini 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The victory was solely Murray’s fourth of the yr and it units up a second-round encounter with Tomás Martín Etcheverry, the twenty ninth seed, who consigned the Briton to a straight-sets defeat within the first spherical of the Australian Open.
For greater than an hour, Berrettini outplayed his opponent by serving extraordinarily nicely, eviscerating his forehand and peppering Murray with drop photographs as he took the primary set. But Murray endured and from early within the second set he started to hit his spots on his serve whereas studying Berrettini’s personal supply more and more nicely. He broke the Italian’s serve for the primary time to guide 4-2 in set two.
As he was standing on the baseline making ready to serve whereas trailing 2-5, Berrettini misplaced his stability, staggering to his proper and almost falling down earlier than complaining of dizziness. He was rapidly seen by the physician and physio however regardless of being OK to renew he did not recapture his earlier degree of play.
Although Murray made life difficult for himself towards an ailing opponent, chastising his personal play all through the ultimate set, and Berrettini confirmed resilience late on, the Briton held on to shut out the victory. Afterwards the 36-year-old signed the TV digital camera lens with out hesitation: “Life in the old dog yet!”
Asked by Laura Robson of Sky Sports Tennis about his tendency to criticise himself on-court, which on Wednesday included loud, cartoonish laughter after his unforced errors, Murray mentioned: “If I’m laughing that’s not OK. If I’m shouting it’s not OK. If I’m flat like I was in Australia, that’s not OK.
“So it’s very hard for me to get the balance right. I’m very different on the court. I’m not a robot. I’m a bit odd, a bit strange. But I play better when I’m like that.”
While Murray celebrated a much-needed win, Berrettini’s difficulties proceed. Amid a sequence of accidents during the last two years, he has been off the tour for seven months after a recurring stomach damage final yr. Having briefly fallen out of the highest 150 this month, Berrettini returned to competitors simply final week, reaching the ultimate of an ATP Challenger occasion in Phoenix.
Earlier on Wednesday, Jack Draper overpowered Taro Daniel of Japan in two medical units to achieve the second spherical with an wonderful 6-3, 6-2 win.
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