Andy Murray has always been one for making giant strides. You know the kind: first British man to win a major since 1936, first Briton to claim the Wimbledon men’s singles title for 77 years, first man in history to win two Olympic singles titles.
But small steps can be significant, too, particularly for a player with a metal hip, and it was just such progress that Murray made in the opening round of the Vienna Open as he overcame Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 to claim his first victory over a top-10 player in more than a year.
It may not be the biggest win of Murray’s career, but it will have felt especially sweet against a player who had narrowly bettered him in their only two previous meetings. As is often the case, Murray went about things the long way around, missing a match point in the second set and falling behind early in the decider, but that will be of little consequence to the former world No 1 as he contemplates a second-round appointment with Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Britain’s Dan Evans.
The 10th-ranked Hurkacz has been a thorn in Murray’s side in recent months, defeating him in Cincinnati and Metz to prolong a string of near misses for the Scot against the world’s best. But here was material proof of the steady progress Murray has made since suffering a dispiriting defeat to Denis Shapovalov in the third round of Wimbledon.
“[My movement] is something that, with each match, I’ve started to do a little better with,” said Murray, twice the champion at an event where he is now on a nine-match winning streak. “A lot of my movement is about anticipation, and when you’re not playing many matches, like I haven’t in the last few years, you’re just not quite reading the play as well. Now, with each match and each week that I’m playing, I’m starting to see the ball a little earlier, starting to react a little bit quicker, and that means I’m going to chase more balls down and move a little bit better.”
That was never more apparent than in the seventh game of the second set when Murray, seeking his second break of the match, raced on to a seemingly unreachable ball to rifle a forehand pass beyond the incredulous Hurkacz. It was a shot effectively worth two points to Murray, Hurkacz ballooning a sitter beyond the baseline on the next point, but the fifth-seeded Pole steadied the ship with some fine play from the back of the court, eventually forcing a tiebreak.
When Hurkacz saved a match point at 5-6 in the breaker with a searing backhand winner, calmly going on to square the match with a big second serve and some solid defensive play, it looked as though the Wimbledon semi-finalist might frustrate Murray for a third time in succession. The alarm bells were becoming deafening for Murray as the contest entered its third hour. Broken in the ninth game of the opening set following an unsuccessful attempt to run around a penetrating backhand return from Murray, Hurkacz had switched to a more aggressive key and was now riding a seemingly irresistible wave of momentum.
Time and again of late the world No 156 has squandered opportunities against the sport’s elite, and history looked to be repeating itself as he double-faulted to concede the opening game of the decider. But some typically dogged defending provided him with the platform for an immediate break back, and when Hurkacz hit three wayward forehands in succession to drop serve again in the sixth game, Murray had the decisive breakthrough he needed. Three games later, he finished with a flourish, slamming down his 10th ace of the evening.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Murray, who will now look to repeat his recent victory over Alcaraz, the world No 42, at Indian Wells. “It was obviously a very tight match, it could have gone either way. I had some chances in the second set, didn’t get it, and then in the third set I was obviously a break down and he’s not an easy guy to break, especially indoors. Thankfully I managed to get the break back in the next game, and from there I probably deserved to get over the line. It was a good win in tough circumstances.”
For Hurkacz, defeat represents a setback to his hopes of qualifying for the season-ending ATP Finals. Ranked ninth in the qualification race – which, in the absence of eighth-placed Rafael Nadal, would be good enough to secure the final berth in Turin – the Pole stands just 110 points clear of Jannik Sinner.
Fresh from his victory over Diego Schwartzman in the final of the European Open, the 11th-ranked Sinner will overtake Hurkacz with a deep run in Vienna. The Italian seventh seed will face Reilly Opelka in the opening round.