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At his home away from home, Andy Murray played what was likely his final Miami Open match on Sunday afternoon.
If it was, he bowed out in typical Murray fashion.
The 36-year-old Scot, who has spent much of his time in Miami throughout his career, lost to Tomas Machac 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5) in a third-round thriller that lasted three hours and 28 minutes. It was the third-longest best-of-three-set match in tournament history.
As usual, Murray refused to go away without a fight despite living on the brink of defeat for a prolonged period of time. The two-time Miami champion broke back down 5-3 to stay alive and then held serve at 4-5. However, on the final point of that game Murray rolled his ankle. Following a medical timeout, the former world No. 1 battled his way into a tiebreaker. Twice Murray led by a mini-break, but Machac reeled off four points in a row to silence a raucous, pro-Murray crowd.
“It’s always a pleasure to share the court with such a great legend,” Machac said afterward. “So, first of all, I’m happy that I can play this long match against him. But on the opposite (side), I don’t want to play so long. At the end, there was everything…. I pushed myself from the bottom to manage to win today.
“Today, for sure, it was the toughest match of my career. Really, I can say there was everything [in the third set].”
The 23-year-old Czech will face Matteo Arnaldi on Tuesday for a place in the quarterfinals.
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