Stefanos Tsitsipas shows himself he can create new Wimbledon memories by thwarting Andy Murray

Before Friday, the most memorable match that Stefanos Tsitsipas had played at Wimbledon was one he would surely love to forget. It took place on No. 1 Court last year against Nick Kyrgios, and it ended in an ignominious mix of meltdown and defeat for the Greek. He sailed one ball into the stands, and tried to drill his opponent with a few others. He let Kyrgios get all the way under his skin, and lost to him in four sets. The defeat left Tsitsipas with a 5-5 record at Wimbledon, highly mediocre for a player of his ranking and skill. Maybe this would never be his Slam.

Did some of that history drift into Tsitsipas’s head during his five-set, four-hour match with Andy Murray over the last two days? The circumstances were the stuff of Wimbledon nightmares: He was playing an inspired British legend in front of a full and loud Centre Court crowd.

“It was nerve-racking,” Tsitsipas said of facing this opponent in this atmosphere. “An obstacle, a big one.”

For three of the match’s four hours, Tsitsipas looked like he wasn’t going to overcome that obstacle, and was destined for another early exit from SW19. He was outplayed by Murray in the crucial second-set tiebreaker. He was out-served and out-hit by the 36-year-old in the third set. And when the match resumed on Friday, he was out-foxed by him for the better part of 12 games.

Through the fourth set, Murray patiently constructed rallies and moved Tsitsipas around without taking big risks. Tsitsipas, meanwhile, couldn’t figure out a way to win points with anything other than his serve-forehand combination. If the rally lasted longer than two shots, he would often make a poor shot choice and fire off an error. The “serve-plus-one”—meaning, big serve, big forehand, point over—is the reigning tennis tactic these days, but Tsitsipas seemed to have oversubscribed to the theory. He didn’t know what to do if it didn’t work.

Until, suddenly, with his back to the wall, he did.

The change came at 3-3 in the fourth-set tiebreaker. Murray was four points away, and had the momentum and the crowd ready to pick him up and carry him across the finish line if needed. It felt like a famous, career-capping victory for the Brit was at hand. But then Tsitsipas did something different. He became patient. He hung in a long rally with Murray, worked his way forward, and closed with a smash.

“That’s probably the safest he’s played a point today,” John McEnroe said in the BBC booth.

I really liked how I showed to myself and my team that I am fully and truly involved in every single point. —Stefanos Tsitsipas

Tsitsipas must have liked the result, because he continued in that vein for the rest of the tiebreaker. He coaxed Murray into a backhand error, and at set point, he worked his way forward again, and finished with a delicate backhand volley. The match was square at two sets all, and the crowd had been quieted. That’s how they stayed the rest of the way, as Tsitsipas broke early in the fifth with a perfectly measured low backhand pass and a nice flip lob that landed in the corner for a winner. Six games later, on his third match point, he finished with an ace.

“It doesn’t come easy, especially when you’re playing Andy Murray,” Tsitsipas said. “He’s a marathon man. He likes making it long. He likes being out there for hours and hours.”

“I went full in. I was down in the score and kept fighting.”

For Murray, it may have been a case of sticking with a safe strategy just a few points too long. His careful, low-risk approach got him to the fourth-set tiebreaker, but it also gave Tsitsipas an opening to direct the points the way he wanted, when they mattered most.

Whatever the reason for his defeat, Murray saw it as a colossal opportunity lost.

“I had a good chance of having a proper run for the first time in a long time at a Slam. I didn’t take it,” he said. “Regardless of the atmosphere and those things, it’s still very, very disappointing to be sitting here right now.”

Murray says he won’t retire now, but he also didn’t commit to returning to Wimbledon in 2024.

“This one will take a little while to get over,” he said. “Hopefully find the motivation again to keep training, keep pushing, try and keep getting better.”

For Tsitsipas, the chore will be avoiding a let down. He has won two five-set matches, over Dominic Thiem and Andy Murray this week, but he’ll be back on Court 2 against Laslo Djere on Saturday. Whatever happens there, he’s made a much better Wimbledon memory for himself. Instead of melting down, the way he did against Kyrgios, he stayed cool and adjusted when he had to.

“I really liked how I showed to myself and my team that I am fully and truly involved in every single point,” Tsitsipas said. “I’m not looking to stop doing that.”

“I really liked my spirit on the court.”