In 2019, Andy Murray tearfully announced the end of his career at the Australian Open. The British tennis star had to have an artificial hip joint inserted after he had previously had multiple hip operations. For him, professional sport was actually out of the question.
Now, almost a year and a half later, 33-year-old Murray was back on the big tennis stage of a Grand Slam tournament. He fought his way back – and in the first round of the US Open against Yoshihito Nishioka, Murray had to go the full distance. Against the Japanese, the former world number one was already 0: 2 behind in sets, but in the end Murray won 4: 6, 4: 6, 7: 6, 7: 6 and 6: 4.
It was a dramatic match and a passionate performance by the Briton against the number 49 in the world. In the second set he was already 0: 4 behind, but he did not give up and reduced it to 3: 4. This set was still lost, then the race to catch up began: In the third and fourth sets, Murray prevailed in the tie-break.
However, Murray lacked the rhythm, he made 77 unforced mistakes, too often he was also dependent on his opponent’s dropouts – so the match remained open until the end. It was only after 4:38 hours that it was clear for Murray to advance.
It was clear that it was going to be tough for Murray. Although he had won the rather small ATP tournament in Antwerp in October 2019, Murray came to New York as 115th in the world rankings; he was on the list of unset players. But now Andy Murray has finally made it to the tournament.
