Andy Murray threatened another miracle on Margaret Court Arena but fell to a four-set defeat against Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round of the Australian Open. The Scot was back at the scene of his late-night heroics against Thanasi Kokkinakis, having done his best to recover from the five-hour, 45-minute epic in which he came back from two sets down to claim victory at 4.05am.
Coupled with a near five-hour first-round win against Matteo Berrettini, Murray had spent 10 hours and 34 minutes on court just making it through to the last 32. To begin with it appeared he would offer little resistance but he willed himself into the match and improbably took the second set before Spaniard Bautista Agut claimed a 6-1 6-7 (7) 6-3 6-4 victory after three hours and 29 minutes.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic continued to defy a hamstring injury as a straight-sets victory over Grigor Dimitrov sent him into the fourth round. The title favourite took another timeout after falling to the floor at the side of the court at the end of the first set but, despite continuing to limp and looking uncomfortable at times, clinched a 7-6 (7) 6-3 6-4 victory.
Earlier, Dan Evans was overpowered by fifth seed Andrey Rublev in a straight-sets defeat. The Russian crunched 60 winners compared with only 22 unforced errors in a quality display to win 6-4 6-2 6-3 and leave Murray as the only British singles player remaining ahead of his meeting with Bautista Agut. Follow live updates and the latest scores from the Australian Open in our live blog below
