Andy Murray's another stunning comeback in a nail-biting semifinal against Jiri Lehecka left the tennis world in awe once again.
The match was a rollercoaster ride for both players, with the outcome swinging back and forth until the very end. Initially, the former world no. 1 easily won the first set 6-0, but soon he was facing match points. After the match, Murray revealed that he knew his opponent was serving for the ATP final for the first time, which gave him the impetus to keep the pressure on until the end.
“I don’t know [how I won]. That was one of the most amazing turnarounds I’ve had in my career. You obviously had the three match points at 5-4, but also [two] when I was serving at 5-3, and then I don’t know."
“I knew it was his first time serving for a final, so I knew I had to try and keep the pressure on at the end. I know how difficult it is to serve matches like that out, but I’ve no idea how I managed to turn that one round to be honest.”
Murray admitted that he wasn't sure how he managed to turn the match around, but it was likely due to his experience and mental toughness. He has been in similar situations before and knows the importance of staying calm and focused, even in the face of adversity.
"Then, yeah, the tiebreak was very back-and-forth, as well. Just managed to come up with, you know, a great serve on the 6-all point. Although he probably should have made the volley on the match point, like, I hit a pretty tricky return off what was, you know, a great serve."
"Yeah, just laughing because, yeah, it's been an amazing sort of start to the year. I have never experienced this in my whole career, like this many matches. You know, talking about it yesterday in the press, like, you know, at some stage, you know, there is going to be a quicker one or whatever."
"It was sort of looking that way for 30 minutes and then turned into something completely different. Yeah, just amazing that I managed to turn that around."
“This tournament over the years has had many great players. [Roger] Federer played a lot, and guys like [Andy] Roddick and [Rafael] Nadal, Novak [Djokovic] has played. Those guys have obviously achieved a lot more than me but this is one small win that I can have over them, so I’ll enjoy this evening and hopefully I can put on a good performance tomorrow.”