LONDON — Andy Murray‘s Wimbledon journey finished in the second round after Stefanos Tsitsipas prevailed in a two-day, five-set epic on Centre Court.
Murray, 36, came into Friday’s match with an overnight two-sets-to-one lead with play suspended at 10.39 p.m. on Thursday, 21 minutes ahead of the local council curfew. But Friday was Tsitsipas’ day as he played some of his best tennis we’ve seen at Wimbledon to dispatch the three-time Grand Slam winner 7-6 (3), 6-7 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in 4 hours 40 minutes.
Tsitsipas, 24, will now face Serbia’s Laslo Djere in the third round, likely on Saturday. Djere upset No.32 seed Ben Shelton on Friday, winning 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
The match was played out on the 10th anniversary of Murray’s first Wimbledon title and he once again had Centre Court on their feet, but it was Tsitsipas who will continue here at this year’s championships.
Play started at 4.30 p.m. local time on Friday and there were fears of how Murray would perform after he fell awkwardly while stretching for a shot in the penultimate point of the previous night’s play. As he served out for the third set, he collapsed to the floor, holding his left side, but managed to close out the set in the next point. There were no signs of the injury scare as he returned to face Tsitsipas on Friday but Tsitsipas had managed to find the same rhythm and accuracy we saw in the first set back on Thursday evening.
Unlike the previous evening’s play under the roof, Friday’s action was out in the open, under the clear blue sky with a breeze flowing around the court. In the fourth set it was ferociously close. Murray and Tsitsipas held serve, with Tsitsipas’ forehand on point and Murray dominating the net, leading to the inevitable tiebreak. But this was judged perfectly by Tstsipas as he took it 7-3, breaking Murray twice in the process.
The key break of serve in the fifth came in the third game. Tsitsipas gave himself a 0-40 buffer on Murray’s serve. Murray clawed back two, but stuck a forehand into the net to give Tsitsipas the key advantage and break of serve. Tsitsipas kept his cool in the balmy temperatures, Murray battled for every point but he couldn’t force any nervous moments on the Greek’s serve.
At 6.16 p.m. on Friday Tsitsipas closed the match out — after Murray saved two match points — nearly 23 hours after it all begun.