MELBOURNE, Australia — Andy Murray lamented his mistakes after yet another Australian Open final loss to Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
The world No. 2 went down to Djokovic 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (3) at Rod Laver Arena, marking his fifth loss in the final in Melbourne — four of them coming against the Serbian.
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Murray made an awful start to the final and, while he recovered briefly, he finished with 65 unforced errors.
The two-time Grand Slam champion, facing the media less than two hours before a flight home to be with pregnant wife Kim, said the errors were decisive.
"I mean, basically I saw some of the stats just at the end of the match," Murray said. "He won 25 more points than me, 26 more points [actually 24]. I had 25 or 26 more unforced errors [also 24]. I think I didn't hit my forehand particularly well at the beginning of the match. I started to hit it better in the third set. But, yeah, that was it."
Murray won 24 fewer points than Djokovic and made 24 more unforced errors.
But he appeared to be working his way into the contest in the second set, only to cough up serve from 40-0 up in the 11th game.
"I mean, the end of the second set, obviously the game I lost 40-0 up, was a tough one," Murray said. "Maybe I could have nicked that set. I was starting to have quite a lot of opportunities in the second. I had a few chances there when I got the break back I think. That was a tough game to lose.
"In the third I felt like towards the end of the set, after I got the break back again, that I was creating a few chances. Then obviously in the tiebreak, I missed two second serves by a little bit. He had served an ace on the T, which was in by a little bit. That was it."