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In 2019, Andy Murray tearfully announced the end of his Australian Open career. The British tennis star had to have an artificial hip joint inserted after having several hip operations. For him, professional sports were out of the question.
Now, almost a year and a half later, Murray, 33, was back on the big tennis stage of a Grand Slam tournament. He fought his way back, and in the first round of the US Open against Yoshihito Nishioka, Murray had to go the full distance. Against the Japanese, the former world number one was already 0: 2 behind in sets, but in the end Murray won 4: 6, 4: 6, 7: 6, 7: 6 and 6: 4.
It was a dramatic match and a passionate performance by the Brit against the world number 49. In the second set he was already 0: 4 behind, but he did not give up and reduced it to 3: 4. This set was still lost, then the race to catch up began: in the third and fourth sets, Murray prevailed in the tie-break.
However, Murray lacked pace, made 77 unforced errors, too often also relied on his opponent’s dropouts, so the match remained open until the end. It was only after 4:38 p.m. that it was clear that Murray would advance.
It was clear that it was going to be difficult for Murray. Although he won the rather small ATP tournament in Antwerp in October 2019, Murray came to New York as 115 in the world rankings; he was on the non-established players list. But now Andy Murray has finally made it to the tournament.
