'He was very aggressive and better than me.'Įvans had won three of his six previous meetings with the 25-year-old Russian, but all of those were three-set matches. I had a little chance in the first when I had break point, but I didn't take it. He played some good tennis,' said the 32-year-old Englishman. The Russian will face Danish teenager and ninth seed Holger Rune as he bids to reach the Melbourne quarter-finals for the first time. I played good tennis and I'm happy with the win.' Evans outpowered by Rublev after sharing banana Dan Evans was aiming to replicate his career-best run to the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2017Įvans, seeded 25th, was outpowered by Rublev, who hit 60 winners to 22 unforced errors in a strong display. 'I am very happy how I managed all the nerves and the tension during the match. 'Playing Andy in a Slam is always very tough, he knows the game very well,' said 2019 quarter-finalist Bautista Agut, who plays American Tommy Paul in the last 16.

Murray trailed 5-2 but, with the support of the crowd behind him, staved off two set points for Bautista Agut before levelling the match with his second set point.Ī tight third set - where Murray continued to produce some stunning shots but bent over in pain between points - stayed on serve until he finally buckled to help Bautista Agut break in the eighth game.ĭespite struggling to serve, Murray broke for a 2-0 lead in the fourth set but Bautista Agut remained patient and broke for 5-4 before serving out the match.Ī excited celebration from the mild-mannered Bautista Agut signalled how deep he had to dig to see off the gallant Murray, who received a rapturous standing ovation when he trudged off court. There, he again needed his fighting spirit. The British number four started moving a little more freely, at least during the points, and fought back to take the set into a tie-break. When the Spaniard, a consistent counter-puncher, moved a break up in the second set it looked like it would be a short night.īut Murray, as he has so often in the past, refused to accept he was beaten.

Regularly wincing after points, and walking gingerly between them, the five-time finalist looked to be in pain as Bautista Agut wrapped up the opening set in just 29 minutes. 'That was really the main thing that I was struggling with.' My legs were actually OK, but I was struggling with my lower back. 'Then I had to come in and had about seven or eight blisters that I had to have drained. 'I slept from 6-9am on the morning I played Kokkinakis, which obviously isn't enough,' said Murray. That was already an extraordinary effort - particularly for an ageing player with a lump of metal in his hip - after needing nearly five hours to beat Italian 13th seed Matteo Berrettini in the opening round. Murray, ranked 66th in the world, needed five hours and 45 minutes to beat Kokkinakis in the longest match of his eventful career. 'How TikTok provides an escape from tennis' - Gauff columnĮver since Murray beat Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis in a five-set thriller that ended at a time he described as a 'farce', the question was: how would he recover physically to face 24th seed Bautista Agut?.Fifth seed Sabalenka cruises into fourth round.Djokovic troubled by hamstring again in Dimitrov win.'You can control the effort that you put into it, and I gave everything that I had the last three matches.'

You can't control how well you're going to play or the result. 'That is really, in whatever you're doing, all you can do. 'I feel like I gave everything that I had to this event so I'm proud of that,' he added. Murray said he had 'a lot of mixed emotions' after losing to 34-year-old Bautista Agut. Two weeks later, Murray had the hip resurfacing surgery he thought he would not be able to return from - but four years on he was back in Melbourne aiming to reach the fourth round at a major for the first time since Wimbledon in 2017. Murray left everything out on the court before succumbing to the man who famously beat him at the 2019 Australian Open in what the three-time Grand Slam champion feared would be the final match of his career. The 35-year-old Scot, who had career-threatening hip surgery in 2019, was the last Briton to fall in the singles.Įarlier on Saturday, Dan Evans lost 6-4 6-2 6-3 to fifth seed Andrey Rublev.

Andy murray australian open 2023