The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
No change to Open schedule despite Murray’s 4am win
Stefanos Tsitsipas voiced the thoughts of everyone who witnessed Andy Murray’s incredible latenight heroics against Thanasi Kokkinakis when he saw him back at Melbourne Park yesterday.
The sun was almost coming up when Murray left the scene of the longest match of his career, a fivehour 45-minute epic that saw him fight back from two sets and a break down to finally clinch victory at 4.05am.
It was barely eight hours later when the man with the metal hip was seen walking gingerly along the corridors, accepting congratulations along the way, having already been attending to the damage to his body.
“I saw him today before my match,” said Tsitsipas. “I was thinking to myself, ‘What is he doing here? He should be in bed’.”
Sat in one of those same corridors just after the end of his 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 7-5 victory, Murray expressed his unhappiness at having to play at such a late hour.
It was the third-latest finish to a tennis match ever recorded and the second latest at the Australian Open after the famous clash between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos
Baghdatis in 2008, which concluded at 4.34am.
That match is so well remembered because it was an outlier, but increasingly that is no longer the case.
A change in game styles, slower surfaces and balls – a particular talking point here – and supremely high levels of fitness almost across the board have meant longer and longer matches, but schedules have not evolved to take that into account.
There appears no likelihood of anything changing, though, with tournament director Craig Tiley telling Channel Nine: “At this point there is no need to alter the schedule.
“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.
“There is always one, and it is hard to schedule the entire event around the potential that happens one time. If you just put on one match at night and there’s an injury, you don’t have anything for fans or broadcasters.”
While some in tennis have called for change, the prevailing attitude appears to be one of acceptance and even celebration.
“That’s the nature of it,” said Tsitsipas. “You have to deal with it. It started at a reasonable time, I would say. Kokkinakis made it long. Murray made it long, too.
“I think tennis likes these kind of matches. There’s a great story behind this match, and it’s going to be remembered. I do remember very vividly the match that Baghdatis played with Hewitt.”
Coupled with his similarly epic victory over Matteo Berrettini in round one, Murray has spent 10 hours and 34 minutes on court – longer than it has taken some players to win a grand slam title.
He improved physically as the match went on against Kokkinakis, with both managing to maintain a remarkable level as the hours ticked by.
But standing in his way of further progress is probably the last man he would want to see across the net, 24th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who is the tennis equivalent of a brick wall.
Murray will know he will again have to do a lot of running, and the brief and stiff-looking practice he managed on Margaret Court Arena yesterday offered little cause for optimism.
It will be their first meeting at a grand slam since the emotional firstround match in 2019 after Murray opened up about the extent of his hip problems and revealed his fears his career may be over.