The whole tennis world is impressed with a stunning spectacle performed by Andy Murray and Matteo Berrettini. The match, which was considered as one of the top games of Australian Open's Day 2, packed with many interesting match-ups even without this pairing, delivered another card to the history of Australian's grand slam. The match lasted 4 hours and 49 minutes and we saw a lot of twists and turns in it. Murray started well and won the first two sets, without losing his own serve, and breaking Berrettini three times at this point. Then, Murray had chances to win the match in 3 sets because he was close to gaining a break advantage in the 3rd game of third set. However, Andy did not take advantage of the excellent situation and allowed Berrettini to gain the advantage for the first time in the match, losing the third set in the result. The fourth set was very good for the serving players because we did not see any break, moreover, there was even not a single deuce. During the tie-break, the Scot two balls away from winning the match. However, the victory in the set was finally enjoyed by the Italian. Just when it seemed that Berrettini is on the way of completing his great comeback, 10th game of deciding set brought another turning point of this match. The 35 years old Murray needed to defend the match ball on his serve. The Italian managed to keep the ball in the court after return and set up the position to finish the point and whole the match in general. He missed an easy ball straight in front of the net and kept Murray's hope alive. The final settlement was delayed into the tie-break. In the super tie-break, the representative of Great Britain quickly gained the advantage, winning first 5 points and securing his capital, as he eventually won 10:6. It was Murray's first win over a top 20 opponent at a grand slam since 2017.
It was not the only match with a dramatic course of this day though. Alexander Zverev, 10 years younger than Murray, turned the tide of the match against Juan Pablo Varillas, who was considered as an outsider. Despite not being in his best form after horrific injury suffered in last year's Roland Garros, Zverev was a favorite with an odd 1.08. After a slow start of German player, he was losing 2:1, but managed to win the next two sets and gain promotion to the next round.
Zverev does not yet know his rival in the next round, as the match between Michael Mmoh and Laurent Lokoli was abandoned at 2-2 in sets. This was also the case in several other matches, because today's order of play was not just full of tennis drama, but also tormented with disturbing weather. Morning session was disrupted due to the heat wave, while the evening brought the rainfall, which torpedoed the plans to proceed most of the evening matches on outside courts. One of the instances was a duel of the qualifier from Australia Max Purcell who was playing with the great hope of Finnish tennis - Emil Ruusuvuori. The match was abandoned at 4:6, 6:3, 6:4, 6:6 from the perspective of Scandinavian.
One of the match from outer courts was promoted into the show stadium and delivered according to the rank of John Cain Arena. A late-night match between home player Alexei Popryin and Taipei's Chun Hsin Tseng was an another five-setter which finished at 2 am local time. Popyrin won after four and half hours battle after dominating the decider, gaining two of just three breaks from whole match distance. The first one was produced by Tseng, giving him a set advantage from the start. Another 37 games were a display of confident serving from both players with three tie-breaks needed on the road. Fifth set was a Popyrin's show who advanced to the R2 to the delight of home fans.
Another highlight of the day was Novak Djokovic's return to the Rod Laver Arena in his opening match against Roberto Carballes Baena. No one expected any trouble for Nole in this duel, and Serbian made a confident advance into second round, winning 6-3 6-4 6-0, giving away just four (!) points in the last set, showing his readiness for the title fight, being the contender number one at the moment. Another contenders also won their matches. Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz advanced without losing a set. Casper Ruud unexpectedly had some problems with 110th ranked Czech Tomas Machac, defeating him 6–3, 7–6, 6–7, 6–3 after the tight match.
