There was a moment of panic as Andy Murray heard the “crackles” from his ankle and fell to the court early in the third set of a routine victory in the second round of the Australian Open.
Having lost in five finals here, Murray, as the world No 1, has never been better prepared to finally end his Melbourne hoodoo. But, as he gesticulated towards his box and mouthed “not good”, there was a brief fear that perhaps injury, rather than arch-nemesis Novak Djokovic, would prove to be his undoing this time.
“It was worrying,” said Murray. “I heard a few sort of little crackles and it was sore. It was throbbing the rest of the match. I was moving fine on it, though. It was just sore, so you’re thinking about it because you have a little bit of pain when you’re moving around. Also, when you’re moving into certain positions again on the court, you don’t want to do the same movement again.”
Murray still managed to close out the 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 win over 19-year-old Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev and immediately received a closer inspection and treatment from his team in the bowels of the Rod Laver Arena. As this took place, Murray searched on the internet for a replay of the fall to find out exactly how bad it had been, but was not successful. Tournament officials later obliged by giving Murray a copy of the footage.
The verdict as Murray left Melbourne Park yesterday was that this should hopefully not turn out to be anything too serious. “It’s not too bad,” Murray said. “Just a bit sore. It’s a little bit stiff just now. I don’t think I’ve done too much damage. I’ll see how it feels when I get up in the morning. It can sometimes swell overnight.”
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He will hope that it has recovered in time to face American Sam Querrey tomorrow. Six months after knocking out the then-world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round at Wimbledon, the world No 32 will bid for a similar result against the new world No 1 at the same stage in Melbourne. He will take confidence from that All England Club win.
“It lets myself know that I can do it,” Querrey said. “I have one other win over Murray [in seven meetings] in 2010 in a final in Los Angeles. I feel like if I can play big and have a high first-serve percentage and my forehand is dropping in and I am aggressive, I feel I can be a pain to play, for anyone.”
The match takes place on the same day as Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States of America, which has sparked much discussion in the locker room here among players from all countries. Murray even admitted yesterday that his coach, Ivan Lendl, had strong views on it, but was understandably not willing to reveal any detail.
Querrey, though, was happy to open up on his hopes for a brighter future under Trump, who is known as a keen tennis fan and even once appeared in the WTA’s “strong is beautiful” celebrity campaign to speak about his appreciation of the women’s tour.
“I have an open mind,” Querrey said. “I hope he can do a good job and hopefully America can get behind him and we can create a lot of jobs and do some good things. The guys from other countries will ask my opinion and ask the Americans their opinion on what we think. It comes up from time to time. It is unavoidable given how big a story it has been the last six months.”
