The unspectacular nature of Muller’s game probably helped. The Frenchman is neat, accurate and deft without doing anything to scare the horses. His best asset on the day was a cute drop shot, but he rarely accelerated the ball with a piledriving groundstroke. They say that your ideal opponent is someone who plays like you, only slightly worse, because that way there can be no surprises. And that was how it felt, as Murray always seemed to have more options than his opponent.
To briefly sketch in the unhappy background, Murray’s previous win had come against Yannick Hanfmann in the first round of Basel, which was played on Oct 23. He was eliminated from that event by Tomas Martin Etcheverry in a tough three-setter, before going to Paris for the indoor Masters events and wasting a 5-2 deciding-set lead against Alex De Minaur. That concluded a moderate year in which he improved his ranking by seven places to finish at No 42.
Murray’s worst slump of his career
His 2024 began with another frustrating three-setter against Grigor Dimitrov in Brisbane, and then delivered a horribly flat performance against Etcheverry at the Australian Open – a straight-sets rout at an event where he had played five finals. Things went to bad to worse with a loss to world No 112 Benoit Paire in Montpellier, and then another against No 66 Tomas Machac in Marseille that made it six on the bounce: the worst sequence of his professional career.
“Tennis has taught me lots of really good life lessons,” said Murray in the interview room. “Everyone goes through difficult times at some stage, and it’s not easy to get out. And the only way really is to work hard and try and find a solution, not – I probably do this, but we shouldn’t – get too down on myself.”
Assuming that Murray’s knee recovers from this 1hr 57min workout, his second round will be a very different sort of match against Jakub Mensik, a raw 18-year-old from the Czech Republic with a strong serve and a big game. Mensik beat world No24 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Tuesday to show he is a threat.
Earlier in the day, Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka had returned to the match court in nearby Dubai after a three-week break following her triumph in Melbourne. Things failed to go to plan, however. After taking the first set against Donna Vekic, Sabalenka found herself comprehensively outplayed in a 6-7, 6-3, 6-0 defeat.
