Andy Murray beats Matteo Berrettini in Australian Open opener marking his tennis injury comeback

The Scot came up on top Down Under, after Andy Murray made an impressive comeback from an injury to beat long standing competitor Matteo Berrettini in his opening Australian Open match.

Andy Murray has previously faced off against the Italian tennis star on four occasions with the younger competitor winning three out of the four meets.

As Matteo is nine years Andy’s junior, fans would have thought that the Scot’s expertise would have made him a sure winner especially in these previous matches, however Andy has suffered several setbacks in terms of injuries and Covid-19 splitting Andy from his long-term coach.

Four years on from the 2019 Australian Open when Andy walked off the court with an emotional ‘farewell’ video playing in the background, following a five-set defeat to Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut; Andy left the Melbourne courts on Tuesday with a bounce in his stride as he clinched his first win at the first Grand Slam of the season.

In light of this, PeopleWorld takes a look back at Andy Murray’s mighty comeback:

What happened to Andy Murray?

Three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray has previously been ranked as world number one by the Association of Tennis Professionals, after clinching two titles at Wimbledon and one at the US Open.

2016 may have been Andy’s best year when he successfully defended his gold medal at the Rio Olympics, to become the only player (male or female) to win two Olympic gold medals in singles, in addition to winning Wimbledon.

However, problems started to arise the following year, when Andy felt severe discomfort with his hip and was unable to do menial tasks such as walking his dog or tying his shoelaces.

To try and save not only his pain but also his career, Andy underwent two hip resurfacing surgeries in 2018 and 2019 respectively, after discovering he suffers from osteoarthritis - where the cartilage begins to break down within a joint.

While this did not ascertain whether Andy Murray would be back on top, after falling out of the top 800 in standings, it certainly did not help that Andy endured a pelvic injury that made him pull out of an ATP event in Germany in 2020.

2020 was not the easiest year overall, with a little thing called Covid-19 circulating the world.

As competitions were cancelled and continued to have a knock-on effect into 2021, Andy also said goodbye to his long-time coach Jamie Delgado, who had been with the Murray team since 2016.

Although everything seemed to be burning down to the ground for the once-number one, one could suggest that Murray was a phoenix rising from the ashes, as his success attests to in the Sydney Tennis Classic at the start of 2022.

This rebound was made even more special as it marked the 12 year anniversary of Andy Murray reaching his first Australian final.

His onward and upward return continued by reaching the Stuttgart 2022 final against none other than Matteo Berrettini, who clinched the title from the three-time Grand Slam champion.

Following yesterday’s triumph over Berrettini, Andy Murray has set himself up for a hopefully strong Australian Open 2023.