The last time Andy Murray was in Melbourne, he left the place in tears. Beaten in the final by Roger Federer in three sets, he could not contain his emotions and, winning the hearts of all packed into the Rod Laver Arena, he admitted: “I can cry like Roger Federer. It’s a pity that I can’t play like him.” For the first five years of Murray’s professional career, he hoped that he would put himself in the position to win a Grand Glam title. The older he got, the more he thought he was ready to win a major prize. But last January, he really believed that he would win his first Grand Slam trophy. When Federer stopped him in his tracks, it took months for him to shake the disappointment from his mind and it was not until Wimbledon that he finally got back to something like his best.
Coming back to Melbourne Park, then, was never going to be easy. Karol Beck, Murray’s first round opponent, posed problems of his own for Scotland’s finest, but just getting back into the Grand Slam groove, the same groove that had seen him play the best tennis of his life here last year, would take a considerable amount of mental and emotional effort.
As it turned out, Murray needed about a set to find his feet and align his sights and then he was off, easing into the second round 6-3, 6-1, 4-2. By the time he had thrown everything barring the kitchen sink at Murray, Beck was only ready to throw in the towel with a shoulder injury midway through the third set. It was not the way Murray would have wanted the match to end but, after more than an hour and half on court, he felt that he had done enough to launch his Australian Open campaign successfully.
“Obviously you’d rather finish the match off without your opponent being hurt,” Murray said. “But it does happen quite a lot so you just have to move on and get yourself ready for the next round. It was pretty close to the end when he retired so I don’t think it will affect me too much in the next round. “He’s a very talented player. He hit some great shots, he just started throwing everything at me. He went for some huge shots. I just kind of had to weather the storm a little bit. I just had to hang in, make a lot of balls. He was playing high‑risk tennis. He managed to make a few mistakes before he stopped.”
That took care of the tennis, but what about the business of readying himself for another tilt at the final? Having come so close last year, he knew how to prepare for a long run in Melbourne but coming back to the scene of his greatest disappointment to date was surely going to be tricky. Apparently not. Murray is a fast learner and he mops up information like a sponge. He has learned from last year and now he thinks he is ready to put that new-found knowledge to good use.
“Experience obviously helps,” Murray said. “I played quite a lot of big matches last year. I went through some very tough patches last year, as well, especially after the Aussie Open. That was something I had to come back from and I learned from. So I think that mentally I’m probably in a better place. Physically I’ve worked hard again, so physically I should be good. “In terms of my game, I work on things a lot in practice, things that are hopefully going to improve my game. Then you just need to go out there and try to put them into the matches when you get the chance.”
Now he plays Illya Marchenko, the world No.79 from the Ukraine. Knowing little of the 22-year-old’s game, Murray dispatched his mum, Judy, and his best mate and acting coach, Dani Vallverdu, to take a squint at the muscular bloke from Donetsk. “They will give me the tactics, things to look for,” the world No.5 said. And they are likely to tell him that he will have nothing to cry about on Thursday, provided he keeps doing what comes naturally - after all, it was enough to get him to the final last year.
