A five-time runner-up at the Australian Open, Murray stole the show during the first week in Melbourne, showing us every ounce of his tenacious, never say die mentality to come through two five-set clashes against 13^th seed Matteo Berrettini and home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis in the opening rounds.

Two matches with similar victories at the death – but in truth, the contests couldn’t have been more different.

With the help of LTA Performance Analyst Tom Callingham, we analyse the momentum from Murray’s first and second round matches to identify the key turning points and trends that helped him clinch signature wins.

Murray holds off Berrettini comeback to upset the 2021 semi-finalist

When the draws came out the week before, there was one match that everyone had circled on their calendar as three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, went head-to-head with 2021 Wimbledon finalist and Australian Open semi-finalist, Berrettini.

So, let’s get into the fine details on how Murray came through with a huge win on day two. The graph below shows the Brit's momentum throughout the match. While this might look a little confusing at first, we’ll help break it down.

The graph gives a complete look at the match and tracks every point. The blue line shows the momentum of the match from one player’s perspective and goes up when they win a point and then down when they lose.

Along the bottom axis (x axis) of the graph you have the total number of points in the match and along the left axis (y axis) you have the number of consecutive points won.

Still with us? Ok let’s look at the match.

The big thing that stands out is Murray’s quick start and how he took complete control of the first two sets. Berrettini certainly wasn’t at his peak in the opener and struggled to make use of his biggest weapon – the serve – and particularly struggled off his second serve, wining only 33% of points.

Callingham picks out point number 104 in the final game of the second set as a key moment in the match. We can see from the graph that Berrettini had taken a 30-0 lead, but three consecutive errors gifted Murray a break point out of nowhere, which he claimed the first time of asking to seal the set.

Moving in to the third set, this was where Murray’s momentum reached its peak, having won nine of the last 10 points and with everything seeming to fall right for the former world No.1 – but the Italian had other ideas.

At point 146 Murray’s momentum took its biggest dive as Berrettini started to hit a hot streak and broke for the first time in the match at 2-2 in the third.

Momentum then starts to plateau for a while, through to the fourth set tie-break where at around point 246, Murray’s momentum suffers another big dip off the back of Berrettini converting his third set point.

The graph marries up with the stats, which create a telling story of how Berrettini had found his form. In the fourth set alone his winner count over doubled that over the opening two sets with 22 and his first serve conversion percentage jumping by 16% to 88%.

From the start of the fifth set we can see easy holds from both players which create these steep peaks and troths until they headed for another tie-breaks. With the match on the line, the graph highlights the decisive moment at point 313, where Murray won the first five consecutive points to completely change the course of the match and seal his victory.

Rejuvenated Murray hits back against Kokkinakis  

The first thing you’ll notice about this graph – it’s completely different to Murray’s opener.

Despite an even start, momentum was against Murray for almost the entire match. After saving break points in his opening game, the graph shows us the significant shift in favour of the Australian as he went on a run of seven in eight points.

We see the momentum line take another dive in the second set as well, where Kokkinakis raced out to an early lead in the tie-break to leave the Brit with a mountain to climb.

The big turning point in the match comes at the start of the third set on point 171 with Kokkinakis a break to the good. Murray responded with the best point of the contest, retrieving three smashes to clinch an essential break to get back on track.

After rescuing another break with Kokkinakis serving for the match, it’s all uphill traffic for the British star. We can identify a big momentum shift in the tie-break in the third, which carried through to the fourth set as Murray chose to come into the net more often and reaped the rewards. He won 17 of 19 points when he came in during the set compared to only four approaches attempted in the opener.

Murray’s momentum line continued to climb as he finds it easier to hold serve and instead created eight break point opportunities before making the breakthrough at 5-5. The graph shoots back into the positive for only the second time in the whole match as Murray closed out the second longest match in Australian Open history.