Matteo Berrettini and Andy Murray met in probably the most-anticipated first-round match at the 2023 Australian Open, and it didn't disappoint.
The thirteenth-seeded Italian, who played the Wimbledon final in 2021, and former world no. 1 from Scotland met already four times before. While Murray triumphed in their first meeting, Berrettini won the following three and therefore he could enter the Rod Laver Arena with confidence.
But the Scotsman started really well. He broke his opponent's first service game and built a 3-0 lead in the first set. A few games later, Murray faced a couple of break points, but he avoided getting broken to win the first set 6-3 in 43 minutes.
The second set was very similar to the first one. Murray broke the Italian immediately and never looked back. He didn't face any break points, and even added one more break to win the second set 6-3 in 41 minutes.
But Berrettini was not giving up. After two long games in the third set, in which both players had break points, the Italian created another chance to break his opponent, and this time he used it. Afterwards, he went on to win the third set 6-4 in 57 minutes to cut the deficit.
The fourth set was the longest one and also the only one without break points. Both players were really solid on their service games and so a tie-break had to decide it. Despite getting as close as two points to winning the match, Murray never had a match point and the Italian eventually pushed through, winning the tie-break 9-7 to force a decider.
The deciding set didn't differ much from the previous one. Essentially, there was only one difference in the first twelve games, Berrettini had a match point on his opponent's serve.
But he couldn't use it and so a match tie-break had to be played. Murray got a quick lead as he broke his opponent's serve three times and led 5-0 after the first five rallies.
Despite Berrettini breaking back once, he couldn't catch up to Murray, who stayed solid on his serve to win the match in four hours and 52 minutes 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(6). He will play agaisnt Thanasi Kokkinakis or Fabio Fognini in the second round.
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