Day 2 of the Australian Open wrapped up in entertaining and expected fashion, with a roller-coaster ride between Felix Auger-Aliassime and Dominic Thiem.
It wasn’t always pretty–which didn’t come as a surprise given the respective form of the two players going into the season’s first Grand Slam–but Auger-Aliassime did just enough to fend off Thiem’s comeback attempt. The 30th-ranked Canadian squandered a 5-2 lead in the third-set tiebreaker with a straight-set victory on his racket before finally prevailing 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5), 5-7, 6-3 after four hours and 59 minutes. It ended after 1:30 in the morning.
There was no such drama in Andy Murray’s opening match–and that was a surprise given his history of marathons at Melbourne Park. In what may have been his last appearance in this tournament, Murray bowed out listlessly to Tomas Martin Etcheverry via a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 scoreline.
“It’s a definite possibility that will be the last time I play here,” the 36-year-old Scot said. “In comparison to the matches that I played here last year, it’s the complete opposite feeling walking off the court. Yeah, wish I involved the crowd more. Just disappointed with the way I played…. (It’s) a tough, tough way to finish.
“It was really just a flat performance. I don’t know exactly why that was the case because I’ve been feeling good going in–played pretty well in Brisbane; practiced really well the last 10 days or so…. Today the crowd all showed up again and gave me brilliant support. I didn’t give enough. I felt like I didn’t give enough back and I’m disappointed with that because they have helped me a lot over the years in matches here.
“I have an idea of when I would probably like to finish playing. So much of that depends on how you’re playing. The time frame for that narrows when you play and have results like today.”
Stan Wawrinka’s time frame may be narrowing, as well. The 2014 Australian Open champion joined Murray in the exit row with a 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 loss to Adrian Mannarino. As the result suggests, Wawrinka faded badly in the fifth set and succumbed after three hours and 36 minutes.
Nonetheless, the 38-year-old Swiss was much more upbeat than Murray.
“It was a bit tough at the end,” Wawrinka admitted. “Couldn’t really push myself more. I didn’t do the work I wanted in the offseason because I got injured in the last tournament. So it was a race a bit to come back here. But I’m quite happy with the 10 days I had here; I had some good practice. Today was a good level in general. I’m just sad with the result.
“In general, I’m quite positive with where I am right now. Even after the loss, I think there is some good opportunity for me to keep pushing, keep playing (with) some good results, and hopefully I can come back next year.”
nice one, Felix