If Andy Murray ever considers turning his hand to writing screenplays, he could surely not have come up with anything as outlandish as what he’s achieving at this year’s Australian Open.
After beating Matteo Berrettini in four hours, 49 minutes on Tuesday, everyone questioned whether he would be able to recover in time to even give his second-round meeting with Thanasi Kokkinakis a fair crack.
Two days on and he has played the longest match of his life, at five hours, 45 minutes, and finished a match later than he has ever finished before.
How he recovers from this is anyone’s guess, but the way he improved as his match went on with Kokkinakis suggests that anything, even for a man with a metal hip, is possible.
Murray’s 4-6, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 win tells only half the story. A match that began at 10.20pm after the day session overran ended at 4.05am, the second-latest finish ever at the Australian Open, beaten only by the 4.34am finish in 2008 between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis.
Even for a man with so many remarkable moments in his career, this one was special for Murray, who trailed by two sets and 5-2 in the third set before somehow, incredibly, coming all the way back for victory.
“I don’t know,” Murray said, when asked how he did it. “It was unbelievable that I managed to turn that round, Thanasi was serving unbelievably, hitting his forehand huge. I don’t know how I managed it. I did start playing better as the match went on and yeah, I have a big heart.”
When told by the on-court interviewer that “I think you have a big everything”, Murray responded: “I don’t think my wife would agree with you.”
As he left the court, heading down the corridors inside Margaret Court Arena, he picked up the pace, leaving his coach, Ivan Lendl to carry one of his bags, eager to get home as soon as possible, to begin the recovery process.
It hardly seems possible that Murray, given everything he has gone through with his hip in the past few years, will be able to recover in time for his next match, against Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.
But then it didn’t seem likely he would be able to recover from his win over Berrettini, which in itself was special, but overshadowed by the physical and mental effort he produced in overturning a two sets to love deficit to beat a younger opponent.
“I actually felt better on the court today physically than I did the other day which is a positive thing but finishing at four o'clock isn't ideal,” Murray told reporters.
Recovering, of course, will be the key, and in many ways, it’s insane that elite sport should be played deep into the night.
Only tennis asks its players to compete well past midnight on a regular basis, too often thanks to organisers trying to squeeze in two matches in the evening session, risky when the day session overruns, as it did yesterday.
“I don't know who it's beneficial for,” Murray said. “A match like that... we come here after the match and that's what the discussion is, rather than it being like, epic Murray Kokkinakis match. It ends in a bit of a farce. Amazingly people stayed until the end, and I really appreciate people doing that and creating an atmosphere for us at the end. I really appreciate that.
“Some people obviously need to work the following day and everything. But if my child was a ball kid for a tournament and they're coming home at five in the morning, as a parent, I'm snapping at that. It's not beneficial for them.
“It's not beneficial for the umpires, the officials. I don't think it's amazing for the fans. It's not good for the players. We talk about it all the time, and it's been spoken about for years. But when you start the night matches late and have conditions like that, these things are going to happen.”
The match itself was ridiculous. Kokkinakis dominated the early stages with massive serving and huge hitting on his forehand but at two sets to love, 2-0, 40-40, the Australian was given a time warning.
It prompted an outburst that gave away his emotions and nerves and Murray broke back. Though Kokkinakis broke again to go up 5-2, his lead always looked fragile and Murray broke back when Kokkinakis was serving for the match and then pinched the tiebreak 7-5.
Suddenly, the match had turned. Murray was going for broke by now, thumping groundstrokes in the cool conditions and breaking to win the fourth.
Kokkinakis saved four break points at 3-3 but Murray continued to push and he finally broke through for 6-5 before holding serve to clinch an incredible victory.
“I think I’m now outright the player with the most matches coming from two sets to love down, Murray said, after his 11th such comeback. “I have experience, I rely on my experience, my fight, competing and my respect for this event.”
“I know I don’t always look it but I’m at my happiest on the inside when I’m on the court,” he said. “I’ve always loved competing, I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, shown my emotions when I played. I’ve been criticised a lot for it over the years but that’s who I am.
“The match was obviously very up and down,” Murray said. “There was frustration and there was tension, there was excitement and all of that stuff. And then at the end... it's obviously amazing to win the match but I also want to go to bed now. I'm like... it's great but I want to I want to sleep.
“Let’s hope I can keep going here but I need to keep recovering now.”
Murray will hope he can pull off another miraculous performance. He’s already shown that anything’s possible.
