36-year-old has struggled to reach the latter stages of majors in recent years
\nMELBOURNE
\nAndy Murray has enjoyed plenty of deep runs at Melbourne Park but the five-times runner-up was left wondering if this Australian Open would be his last after being dumped out in the first round on Monday.
\nMurray, who lost 6-4 6-2 6-2 to Tomas Martin Etcheverry, last went out in the opening round in Melbourne in 2019 when the Scot expressed doubts about his future in the sport before going on to resurrect his career after having hip-resurfacing surgery.
\nThe 36-year-old twice Wimbledon champion has struggled to reach the latter stages of majors in recent years but dragged himself into the third round at Melbourne Park in 2023 with back-to-back five-sets wins.
\nAfter his latest defeat, however, Murray said there was \u201ca definite possibility\u201d that it would be the last time he plays on the blue courts of Melbourne. \u201cProbably because of how the match went and everything, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWhilst you\u2019re playing the match, you\u2019re obviously trying to control your emotions, focus on the points and everything.\u201dWhen you\u2019re one point away from the end, you\u2019re like, I can\u2019t believe this is over so quickly, and like this. Yeah, in comparison to the matches that I played here last year, it\u2019s the complete opposite feeling walking off the court. \u201cWish I involved the crowd more. Just disappointed with the way I played and all of that stuff, so … Yeah, tough, tough way to finish.\u201d
\nStan Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, also went out in the first round on Monday, taking 20th seed Adrian Mannarino to five sets before going down 6-4 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-0.
\nWawrinka was the only player in the men\u2019s draw other than defending champion Novak Djokovic to have claimed the Melbourne Park trophy and the 38-year-old Swiss hoped Monday\u2019s loss would not be his final appearance at the Grand Slam.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll see how the year goes. It\u2019s just the beginning of the year,\u201d Wawrinka said.
\n\u201cIn general, I\u2019m quite positive with where I am right now. \u201cEven after the loss, there is some good opportunity for me to keep pushing, keep playing some good results and hopefully I can come back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
36-year-old has struggled to reach the latter stages of majors in recent years MELBOURNE Andy Murray has enjoyed plenty of deep runs at Melbourne Park but the five-times runner-up was left wondering if this Australian Open would be his last after being dumped out in the first round on Monday. Murray, who lost 6-4 6-2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-381099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n