Andy Murray has revealed the brutal, physical toll this Australian Open took on him – and how the fallout from his 4am win over Thanasi Kokkinakis hurt him in the third round loss to Roberto Bautista Agut.
Murray spent around 14 hours on court across three matches in six days, despite having a metal hip amid other maladies, beating Matteo Berrettini and Kokkinakis in a pair of five-set epics.
It all caught up with him on Saturday night, with the Scot clearly in pain from the opening point – an “uncomfortable” back made serving painful – yet he still fought bravely and even claimed a set in front of a partisan crowd.
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But it all ended up being too much with Murray revealing he had just three hours’ sleep the morning after the win over Kokkinakis, needing to come back to Melbourne Park for medical treatment.
That included having seven or eight blisters drained along with ice baths and a minimal amount of actual on-court training due to the exertion of the matches already gone.
“I mean, I slept from 6 until 9 the morning I played the match with Kokkinakis, which
obviously isn’t enough,” Murray explained.
“Then I had to come in here (to Melbourne Park). I had about seven or eight blisters that I had to have drained and then he put this liquid in to dry it. I had to come in in the morning to give that time to settle.
“Then I went back to the hotel, slept for a few hours, and then hit for, like, 15 minutes yesterday. Yeah, just the ice baths, saw my physio.
“Yeah, actually, I mean, my feet didn’t feel great. My legs were actually okay. They weren’t too bad. But I was struggling with my lower back. That was affecting my serve. That was really the main thing that I was struggling with today.”
He later explained: “Serving was the thing that was giving me the most trouble. I mean, my back was uncomfortable.
“I couldn’t really extend on my serves. I couldn’t hit a kick serve. I couldn’t really sort of extend my back on the serve to generate much power on the first serve. Wasn’t able to really drive up to it. That was the thing that was uncomfortable.
“Once I got in the rallies and stuff, it wasn’t really too bad, to be honest. I’ve felt worse on the court than that. It was just the serve, especially like after I got up from sitting at the end, change out the first couple of serves, didn’t feel good.
“… I’m sure if you went and spoke to some sleep experts and sports scientists, et cetera, the people that actually really know what’s important for athletes to recover, they would tell you that sleep is the number one thing, that that’s the most important thing.
“Finishing matches at 4 in the morning isn’t good for the players. I would also argue it’s not good for the sport, anyone involved in it. I do think there’s some quite simple things that can be done to change that.”
Despite having more than enough reasons to make excuses, Murray wasn’t willing to do so.
He declared there’s “no question” he can return to the second week of a slam – which he hasn’t done since making the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2017.
“I think obviously you never know exactly when the end is going to be. I would like to go out playing tennis like this, where I’m competing with the best players in the world in the biggest events and doing myself justice,” Murray said.
“There were maybe times the last year or so where I didn’t really feel like I was playing well, and I didn’t enjoy the way that I was playing. Yeah, those sacrifices and that effort that I put in allowed me to get through those matches and play at a high level that I think was entertaining for the people watching.
“I felt good about the way that I was playing (at this event). It’s more enjoyable for me when I’m playing like that, when I’m coming into a major event and really believing that I can do some damage.
“But, yeah, I can have a deeper run than the third round of a slam, there’s no question about that. Obviously draws can open up for you. I need to also help myself with that. If I was playing at this level last year, I probably wouldn’t be ranked 50, 60 in the world. It’s up to me to try and change that.”
