Alex de Minaur has continued his brilliant hard court form in 2023 having defeated Andy Murray for a fifth consecutive time, which eclipses some tennis legends. De Minaur completed a remarkable comeback after saving three match points in a brilliant match to win 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 at the China Open.
At one stage, Murray became so frustrated with his own performance he received a code violation for, rather uncharacteristically, hurling his racquet down three times in the same game when losing the plot in the second set.
Murray obliterated his racquet at one stage of the match, which also saw him throw it a number of times in the decider. Murray held a comfortable 5-2 lead in the third set, but the Aussie showed his tenacity and clawed his way back into the contest to take it to a tiebreak.
The Australian used his rival’s frustration to win the tiebreaker and defeat Murray after nearly three hours. Murray was clearly frustrated after the match as he appeared to tell the camera person to ‘move’ as he guided the camera away from him. While the Scot was fuming, de Minaur would have been thrilled having won his fifth consecutive match against the three-time grand slam winner.
Only four players have ever managed to defeat Murray four times in a row. Those names include Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. However, none of them have achieved the feat five times.
