In what could arguably be the biggest upset of the Australian Open, world No.1 Andy Murray crashed out 5-7, 7-5, 2-6, 4-6 to German Mischa Zverev, ranked 50th, on Sunday.
Murray found Zverev’s serve-and-volley game difficult to cope with. From the first set, the Briton knew he had a stern task on his hands. Zverev bravely attacked the net and was solid with his backhands from the base too. There were no easy points on offer for Murray, but he did make a strong comeback in the second set, which he managed to win, 7-5.
Zverev’s energy and tenacity levels, though, never diminished despite him losing the second set. The Scot’s frustrations grew in the third set, which he lost in a tie-break despite Zverev missing out on the chance to break his opponent’s serve. Injury and fatigue played its part too as Murray missed out on bagging a couple of straightforward points. To compound his woes, Zverev was returning almost everything he could throw at him.
Zverev broke Murray’s serve early in the decisive set and there was no coming back from there. There were a couple of unforced errors from Zverev, but held his nerve to close down the set in front of a crowd that roared in sheer disbelief at the magnitude of the result.