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In the best and most dramatic match of the 2023 tennis tour — which admittedly is only in its third week — Britain’s toughest, grittiest, grouchiest, most big-hearted player, Andy Murray of Glasgow, Scotland, came back from two sets and 3–5 to snatch victory from the jaws of Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The second-round Australian Open match ended sometime before dawn in Melbourne Park, five and three-quarter hours after it began. There have been many long matches in the century-old history of the Grand Slam circuit, and there have been many a breathtaking comebacks. In fact, they are not uncommon. Rafael Nadal won this very tournament last year after dropping the first two sets; Dominic Thiem did the same at the U.S. Open in 2021. I could look up the whole history, but my Bud Collins History of Tennis is not at hand. Tennis is a game of dramatic momentum shifts, and, as is said of baseball, it ain’t over ’till it’s over.
Observe, however, that these recent matches were Slam finals. At the last match of a two-week endurance test at one of the four most prestigious tournaments on the tour, the last two men standing are at the top rung of the will-to-win, and fatigue does not enter the equation. They are so fired up and focused that two sets down is scarcely noticed except that it gets the adrenaline flowing even faster than seems anatomically possible.
Here, it was only the second round. And with Andy Murray, beyond the brilliance of his game, there is a rare ability to put everything into every single match he plays. At 35 and with two hip surgeries, he could be excused for thinking that he made his point by reaching the second round.
