Andy Murray knocked out of Australian Open by Roberto Bautista Agut after gruelling, high-quality encounter

ByEurosport

Updated 21/01/2023 at 12:42 GMT

Andy Murray has been knocked out of the Australian Open at the third-round stage. The Briton lost 1-6 7-6(7) 3-6 4-6 to Roberto Bautista Agut. Murray had won two five-set encounters on his way to a third-round match against Bautista Agut – first beating Matteo Berrettini and then Thanasi Kokkinakis. Bautista Agut will face Tommy Paul at the last-16 stage after he beat Jenson Brooksby.

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Britain's Andy Murray has been knocked out of the Australian Open at the third-round stage after a battling 1-6 7-6(7) 3-6 4-6 loss to Roberto Bautista Agut on Margaret Court Arena in a match of staggering quality.

Murray, who had already come through two five-set marathons against Thanasi Kokkinakis and Matteo Berrettini in rounds one and two, lost the first set comprehensively but fought back to level the match after a second-set tie-break.

However, with the next set – and the match finely poised - Bautista Agut secured the decisive break in the eighth game before opening up a 2-1 lead.

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While Murray broke early in the fourth, the Brit could not work another miracle fightback. Bautista Agut broke back immediately and then secured the decisive break of the set - and the match - in the ninth game before serving it out.

"I gave everything I had the last three matches so I’m very proud of that," said Murray in his post-match press conference.

"But I’m also disappointed because I’ve put loads of work into the beginning of this year and was playing well enough to have a really good run, a deep run."

Bautista Agut will face Tommy Paul at the last-16 stage after he beat Jenson Brooksby in straight sets.

The result means Novak Djokovic is the only major winner left in the draw that has seen a host of big names – including Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev – knocked out ahead of the last-16 stage.

Those exploits in rounds one and two appeared to have caught up with Murray in the opening set of the third-round encounter against Bautista Agut, who began firmly in the ascendancy. The world No. 25 found 10 winners for just five unforced errors in a dominant opening set that he won in just 29 minutes for the concession of one game.

And when the Spaniard found a break in the third game of the second set, it looked a long way back even for Murray.

However, there were signs of life from Murray in the fifth game of the set, though, when he came out on top of a 23-shot rally as he held his serve for just the third time in the match. If Murray was out of sorts, Bautista Agut was playing with an assuredness that saw him hit just six unforced errors over the first hour of tennis and hold his first three service games of the second set to love.

While Bautista Agut's holds were comfortable, Murray's were anything but. He was again made to work to hold in the seventh game of the second set – but he duly did.

And, roared on by a vociferous Margaret Court Arena, he broke Bautista Agut's run of 17 straight points on his serve in the next before fashioning three break points. Murray took the first to put the second set back on serve. The three-time Grand Slam winner backed that up with a hold and then fought back from 40-0 to deuce to put himself within two points of parity in the match, but Bautista Agut found some clutch shots to make a crucial hold.

The momentum had shifted, though. Not solely in Murray's favour, but what had threatened to be a procession had morphed into a second-set battle of wills that would be settled by a tie-break. Bautista Agut secured an early mini-break, but Murray combined brilliance - most notably a cross-court backhand that caught the line to move to 4-5 - with doggedness to hold on before breaking back.

And having saved two set points earlier in the breaker, Murray took the second of those he had fashioned to level the match.

The standard remained improbably high in the third set, with Murray coming out on top of a stunning exchange to move to 40-30 in the sixth game having left the door ajar for a break at 0-30. He would see that game out for the set to remain on serve before Bautista Agut held to love. Murray coughed up two break points in the next game, which he defended - but the pressure would pay, with Murray losing his serve on a third break point.

The world No. 25 would back that break up with a hold to love to move into a 2-1 lead.

However, Murray being Murray, he worked a break point on Bautista Agut's first service game of the fourth set. It was just the second break point he had crafted of the match - and, just as with the first, he took it. If Margaret Court Arena thought that had once again re-set the initiative, it had not; the 34-year-old Spaniard broke straight back after another gruelling Murray service game. A hold to 15 followed.

'Another miracle in the making' as Murray breaks in the fourth set

From there, the set went with serve until its ninth game when the Spaniard broke to love and then, on his serve, took the first match point on offer to progress to the next round.