On January 18, Beijing time, the first round of the Australian Open continued. In a men's singles matchup, five-time tournament runner-up Murray played against Club No. 21 seed Basrashvili. The two sides have met a total of 2 times before, and Murray has won the final victory. Today, the two sides fought fiercely in five sets, and Murray narrowly won the opponent 3-2 to advance, winning the Australian Open again after five years.
Both sides saved their own serves in the first two sets, with Murray taking the lead in the third set before taking a 3-1 lead. Murray broke again in the 5th set and he took a 5-1 lead after holding the serve in the 6th set. In the 7th set, Murray broke four consecutive points in the opponent's serve to win the first set 6-1.
In the second set, Basrashvili broke first in the 3rd set and he took a 3-1 lead in the 4th set. Murray's serve was again lost in the 5th set, and Murray broke the lead in the 6th set to make it 2-4. In the 9th inning, Basrashvili broke again in a set that Murray had to protect, winning the second set 6-3.
In the first four sets of the third set, both sides saved the set, and in the fifth set Murray cashed in on the fourth break point, and Basrashvili broke back in the sixth set to make it 3-3. Murray broke again in the 7th set and he held it back in the 8th set to take a 5-3 lead. In the 9th set, Basrashvili defused three end-of-set saves, and in the 10th set Murray saved the ball to win the set and win the third set 6-4.
In the fourth set, Murray defused the break point in the fourth set to save the set, and in the sixth set Basrushvili broke to take a 4-2 lead. In the 7th inning, Murray quickly completed a comeback and then he saved to make it 4-4. In the 10th inning, Murray defused the set to save the set and brought the set to 5-5. After that, the two saved their own serves, and the fourth set went into the seventh set. Basrashvili won the set 6-3 in the seventh set, and Murray scored two consecutive points to make it 5-6, but then Basrashvili scored another 1 point to win the seventh 7-5.
In the decider, Murray started with a break in the break to take a 2-0 lead. Basrashvili broke in the 7th inning and then went on to run 4-4 in the 8th set. In the 10th set, Murray broke in a set where his opponents had no way back and won the decider 6-4.
In the final five-set battle that took 3 hours and 51 minutes, Murray, who played with a wild card, defeated the 21st seed Baslashvili 6-1, 3-6/6-6/6-4(5)/6-4 to successfully reach the second round of the Men's Singles of the Australian Open. This is the second time Murray has won the Australian Open in five years, and the last time he won the Australian Open dates back to the third round victory over the United States' Querry in 2017.