Australian Open: Andy Murray triumphs at 4.05am in longest match of his career


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Andy Murray battled deep into the night to conjure another extraordinary win at the Australian Open.

Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis served for victory at 5-3 in the third set of their second-round encounter on a rowdy, partisan Margaret Court Arena only for Murray to show once again that his greatest asset is a stubborn refusal to lose.

The 35-year-old, who had battled for nearly five hours to upset Matteo Berrettini on Tuesday in his best result since 2017, forced a deciding set and finally prevailed 4-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 7-5 at 4.05am.

At five hours and 45 minutes, it was the longest match of Murray’s whole career and the third latest finish to a tennis match ever.

It was a contest that had everything, not least the quality of the rallies, which somehow did not diminish as the clock ticked on.

Both men were unhappy to be given time violations by umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore, while Kokkinakis, who racked up 102 winners, also received a warning for smashing his racket after a ridiculous point in the third set where Murray retrieved three smashes.

A sizeable number of fans stuck it out to the bitter end but Murray railed to Asderaki-Moore about the lateness of the hour, branding it “disrespectful”, and the increasing number of post-midnight finishes will surely focus attention on tennis’ scheduling.

Having spent more than 10 hours on court, Murray must now somehow try to recover for a third-round clash with Roberto Bautista Agut, the player he lost to in 2019 when it appeared his career was over.

World No 159 Kokkinakis, who won the Australian Open doubles title last year with his great friend Nick Kyrgios, was bidding to become the lowest-ranked player ever to beat Murray at a grand slam, although the level he played at here was far superior to that number.

The match did not begin until after 10pm, and the atmosphere was tasty from the start – if ever there was a name to inspire chants from an Australian crowd, it is surely Kokkinakis.

The 26-year-old, like his opponent, has dealt with more than his fair share of injury troubles but has shown before he can rise to a big occasion, boasting wins over Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Kokkinakis made a nervous start but Murray was unable to take any of three break points in the second game and from there the Australian began to dictate with his big serve and forehand.

He broke serve to lead 3-2, going on to take the first set and then looked in complete control when he forged ahead at 5-4 in the second.

It was in that game that Murray received a time violation for taking too long on his serve, leading to complaints from the Scot about the impact of the crowd noise.

He clawed his way back into the set in typically gritty fashion, saving three set points in the next game, but was immediately on the back foot in the tie-break and could not recover.

The 35-year-old cut a frustrated figure throughout and at the beginning of the third set appeared to rail against the empty seat temporarily vacated by coach Ivan Lendl.

Murray’s powers of defence helped him pull back after dropping serve, with Kokkinakis engaging in an expletive-laden rant at Asderaki-Moore over a time violation and then reacting to Murray’s incredible retrieving skills by pounding his racket into the ground in disgust.

The Scot just could not get on the front foot, though, and Kokkinakis broke again, setting up the chance to serve for the match.

But – as in the second set – Kokkinakis tightened up a little at the vital moment and Murray seized his opportunity before clinching the tie-break when his opponent sent a smash horribly wide of the open court.

It had been his one Achilles heel all night and it finally gave Murray something to work with.

He began to take control of more of the baseline rallies and finally broke for 4-2 in the fourth set before clinching it with an ace after saving two break points as the clock reached 3am.

Kokkinakis’ serve kept him in it in the decider, including recovering from 0-40 at 3-3, but at 5-5 Murray finally found a way through and he served out one of the most memorable victories of his life.

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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

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Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
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Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

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Updated: January 19, 2023, 5:45 PM`