Just two short days on from the joy and satisfaction of toppling a seed after five physical sets on the court that seemed to mark the end of his career three years ago, Andy Murray’s Australian Open return came to a bitter, disappointing end.
Despite returning to John Cain Arena as the clear favourite, he left having barely made a mark, losing by the routine scoreline of 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to Taro Daniel, a qualifier, in the second round. As Murray sat back in his press conference hours later, his frustration was still clear. “I’m really, really disappointed,” he said. “Very frustrated. And, yeah, tough loss for me. That’s for sure,” he said.
After his tough victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili on Tuesday, Murray had arrived in the second round against Daniel in the rare position of being the higher-ranked player in a grand slam match. However, Daniel, ranked 120th, is a dogged counterpuncher whose game has been flowing in Melbourne. He tore through qualifying, winning all three matches and his first round on Tuesday without dropping a set.
From the very beginning, Daniel settled behind the baseline, remained extremely solid and challenged Murray to consistently put the ball past him. When the moment presented itself in long rallies, he unleashed on his backhand down the line with great effectiveness.
Murray defeated Basilashvili by counterpunching throughout, moved like the wind for nearly four hours and goaded 99 unforced errors from his opponent. But Daniel’s movement and consistency forced him to play in a completely different manner. He had to step inside the baseline, create his own opportunities and win on the quality of his shotmaking rather than his legs.
Despite his best attempts to do so, he failed. Murray was unable to hit through the court and Daniel’s defence particularly exposed his forehand, which haemorrhaged unforced errors whenever he tried to take control with it. He became increasingly frustrated as the set wore on and Daniel took it 6-4.
At the beginning of the second set, Murray attempted to inject more pace into his groundstrokes and generated four break points. But in a scenario that repeated itself throughout the match, Murray failed to take his chances and soon found himself down a break and treading uphill.
As the match endured and he edged closer to victory, Daniel’s level only improved. He chose his moments to unleash, particularly with his backhand, but when he did, he pierced Murray’s defence far more easily than Murray did his. Daniel closed out the second set with 19 winners and just seven unforced errors in total.
The final blow came near the end of the third set. Murray fought, cheered and tried to rally the crowd but at 4-4 he threw in a poor service game and Daniel elicited one final backhand error on break point. Murray reacted to the break by slamming his racket to the ground and barking to himself, which led to him receiving a code violation from the umpire, Aurélie Tourte. While Murray seethed at the warning, Daniel closed out the match with ease.
In the past, Murray’s hip and his physical condition have rendered back-to back best of five-set matches a massive obstacle. One of the clear question marks surrounding the match even before Murray entered the court was how badly his long match against Basilashvili had affected him.
However, Murray admitted he had entered the match with high hopes of success. “I felt all right today, physically,” he said. “Pulled up pretty well from the match the day afterwards. So, yeah, from that respect I was actually quite happy with how I felt considering the situation.”
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While Murray has spent much of the past few years desperate to regain his fitness, he has been motivated by his confidence in his playing ability and so it must be particularly frustrating that, even as he is moving well and he says that he is recovering sufficiently, it is now his tennis that has let him down.
As he returns home, Murray will have to digest this performance as he looks to continue on a positive path in 2022. One possible factor in his performance is that he recently decided to change his racket, opting for a bigger head than his previous model. “Everyone I have spoken to around testing and changing rackets says it does take a bit of time to gain confidence in it, so I have to bear that in mind a little bit,” he said.
What is clear is that, at 34, Murray is still committed to playing such an attritional, defensive style while most of his contemporaries have become more efficient with age. Charged with dictating a lesser, lower-ranked opponent in an important match, he could not.
