It has been five years since Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray battled against each other in their fateful French Open semi-final in 2017, then two of the top three players in the world. They played for five bruising sets over four-and-a-half hours and although Wawrinka advanced, nobody really won. Murray left the match with serious hip injury, then two days later Wawrinka departed with a career-altering knee injury. After numerous surgeries and one metal hip, neither has fully recovered their levels.
On Monday afternoon, they began their 22nd meeting in far more understated circumstances, a first-round match in the secluded suburbs of Cincinnati. In the arduous, jittery match that followed, as both men battled their bodies as well as each other, Murray overcame a bout of cramping and a break in the third set as he drew upon his typical grit to emerge as the victor, 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5.
