Frustrated top seed Sir Andy Murray was somewhat-less-than noble as he scrapped his way to a first-round win over Ukraine's Illya Marchenko at the Australian Open.
In hot conditions at Melbourne Park, an agitated Murray was broken three times by his 95th-ranked opponent in the first two sets before finding his composure to record the 7-5 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 win.
Clearly displeased with his scratchy performance, Murray often screamed at his player's box, where wife Kim instructed a towel be placed over a broadcast camera, berated himself repeatedly and generally looked unhappy on Rod Laver Arena.
"I don't think it was the best match, to be honest," Murray said.
"The conditions there were pretty different to what we've been practicing. Last week's been pretty cool ... a lot of days it's been overcast.
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"The temperature of the court was much cooler. When it's like that, the ball is bouncing a bit lower, (it's) a bit easier to control the ball. I was a bit tentative because of that.
"And I didn't serve that well either. So you end up having to work really hard on a lot of your service games when it's like that.
"It just was tough."
Murray sat in his chair between games late in the first set loudly lambasting himself for his "shocking movement".
"I didn't move that well ... that's how it felt anyway," he said.
"But sometimes that can also be down to the conditions, as well.
"The ball's flying through the air a little bit quicker, so the ball is coming onto you faster than what it was the last few days ... maybe I wasn't reacting as quickly as I would have liked.
"But maybe also nerves there first round as well. It's maybe normal to feel a little bit slow on your feet or a bit heavy-legged in the first round."
Despite his frustration at his first-up performance, Murray is happy to be back at the grand slam he has been a beaten finalist at five times.
"I have had a lot of tough losses here, for sure, but I love it here," he said.
"I played some of my best tennis on hard courts here. Played some great matches as well ... just haven't managed to win the final.
"But I keep coming back to try. I'll keep doing that until I'm done. But I still feel like I got a few years left to try and do it.
"Hopefully it will be this year."
Murray will face Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev in the second round.
