Andy Murray reflected on what may have been his hottest
ever streak as he defeated French qualifier Vincent Millot in the second round
of the Australian Open.
The fourth seed found himself 1-5 down in the third set
before embarking on a remarkable to that ensured his safe passage into round
three in Melbourne.
Millot had a set point but Murray saved it, and from then
on won every single point - a run of 23 in succession - to triumph 6-2 6-2 7-5.
He said: "It was 6-5 when I went to serve for it,
and someone shouted out, 'You won 19 in a row'. I would say that's probably the
most I'd ever won in my career by far.
"It's very difficult to do. I don't really know how
I did it. But I didn't realise until I went to serve for the match. It was a
good way to finish.
"He was obviously almost going for broke on a lot of
shots. He was hitting the ball so early, and flat and low. It was very humid
today, so the ball really wasn't flying much.
"He came up with some great shots in the third set.
Then when he didn't get his set point - I played a good point on his set point
- I guess it's normal he got a little bit nervous, which helped.
"He started missing a few balls and I adjusted my
tactics a little bit."
Humid
The importance of the winning streak to Murray was that
it enabled him to complete the match in straight sets and get off the court
amid temperatures that were still very high even so late in the day.
Brother Jamie had to be treated for severe and 'scary'
cramps after winning his doubles match earlier in the day and Murray was
anxious to avoid a similar fate.
"I just wanted to win the game," admitted the
Scot. "It was obviously fairly late. The way that set had gone, I just
wanted to try to get through that game.
"I didn't really care about winning 23 points in a
row. I wanted to win the match. I'm glad I finished it there, because they were
very, very hard conditions.
"Even in the evening it was so humid. After they
closed the roof they obviously had the rain and the thunderstorms.
"It changed the way the court and the balls played a
lot. It was heavier. I hit a lot of balls in the net today. It slowed everything
down a bit. I just was glad to get off."
Murray holds a 7-0 head-to-head record over his third
round opponent, Feliciano Lopez, although the Spaniard did force three
tie-breakers in a four-set defeat when they last met at the 2012 US Open.
Culled from Skysports
