Andy Murray refused to be disheartened following his straight sets loss to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.
The world No.2 endured a mixed encounter against Djokovic as he produced an uncomfortable 65 unforced errors (24 more than his rival). It is the third consecutive time that Murray has lost to the Serbian in straight sets, as Djokovic extends his head-to-head to lead to 22-9. In their latest encounter, Murray blamed his slow start to the match on his forehand.
“I think I didn’t hit my forehand particularly well at the beginning of the match. I started to hit it better in the third set”. He said.
Despite his seemingly straightforward loss, Murray did have chances to have a stronghold in the match. In the second set at 5-5, Murray was 40-0 up before Djokovic clawed his way back to break for a chance to serve for the set. It was a familiar scenario in the third set after Murray broke back to level 3-3. The Brit was matching Djokovic game by game until he suffered a whitewash in the tiebreaker, rapidly going down 1-6 to enable the top seed to gradually clinched the title.
“I was starting to have quite a lot of opportunities in the second. I had a few chances there when I got the break back I think. That was a tough game to lose”. Murray said.
“Then obviously in the third I felt like towards the end of the set, after I got the break back again, that I was creating a few chances”.
The past two weeks have been a testing period due to events occurring off the court. As Murray eagerly awaits the birth of his first child, the Brit was also distracted when his father-in-law, Nigel Sears, was admitted to hospital following a health scare. Reflecting on recent events, the Brit said that he was proud with his performance considering recent events.
“I’m proud that I got into this position, you know. Just quite looking forward to getting home now”. The world No.2 said.
“It’s been hard. Regardless of today’s result, it’s been hard. Had I lost in the third or fourth round it still would have been difficult with everything that’s happened.”
Murray is now the second player in the Open Era to lose in final at the same Grand Slam event five times. He has now lost 12 out of his past 13 matches against a world No.1 player. The only exception was against Djokovic at the 2015 Montreal Masters.
Following his Australian exit, Murray is flying straight back home to be with his wife Kim. The Brit will miss the whole of February to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.
