"I'm just unbelievably happy, very proud of myself"- Andy Murray after his marathon win against Matteo Berrettini at Australian Open 2023
Andy Murray mentioned that he was "unbelievably happy" and "proud of himself" after winning his marathon opening round against Matteo Berrettini under his name at the 2023 Australian Open.
The Brit defeated the big-hitting Italian in five epic sets 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(6) in 4h 45m to reach the second round of the tournament. The five-time Aussie Open finalist blew his two-set lead against the 2022 semifinalist and made it harder for himself to progress in the match.
In his on-court interview, Murray mentioned that he had put in a lot of work heading into the first Grand Slam of the year and was happy to see it pay off.
"I'm just unbelievably happy, very proud of myself. I've put a lot of work in for the last few months with my team, who are here, to give me the opportunity to perform on stadiums like this, in matches like this, against players like Matteo. It paid off tonight," he said.
"Right now, I'm just unbelievably happy [and] proud of myself."
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The three-time Grand Slam winner was visibly emotional after the match and tried his best to stop his tears, sitting down after the match. His mother, Judy, was overjoyed with Murray's victory as well and shed some tears after his win against the Italian.
"I think I did very well to hang in at the end because it could have got away from me" - Andy Murray
While analyzing his match, Andy Murray accepted that the match was getting away from him after Berrettini won the third and fourth sets.
In his post-match press conference, he stated that the Italian's big game took charge and also pointed out that the match could have been very different had he converted his early break chances in the third set.
"I mean, reflecting on the match, yeah, I haven't had loads of time to digest it but I think it was a really good match. I think I did very well to hang in at the end because it could have got away from me with the way that he was serving and the way he was playing," Murray noted.
"But, yeah, on the whole, I felt like I created enough chances to win the match. Had I picked one of the break points early in the third, it could have been a slightly different outcome. Yeah, well, it felt to me that we played some really good tennis at times. Yeah, really happy to get through," he added.