AGEING BULL

Andy exits with a whimper rather than a bellow

- NEIL MCLEMAN

FIVE YEARS ago after an emotional defeat here on the first Monday, the Australian Open said goodbye to Andy Murray.

Yesterday evening, with an embarrassed smile and wave as he left the Kia Arena holding back tears, the Scot said his own, lower-key farewell.

And this time it was for real. A video montage with tributes from Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal was played on the big screen in the Rod Laver Arena after Murray lost to Roberto Bautista Agut in 2019.

Since then, he has undergone a second successful hip operation and given us more headlines and heartaches.

But as he nears his 37th birthday in May, he has never been able to reproduce the success from earlier in his career and has not reached a Grand Slam quarter-final since Wimbledon 2017.

And despite some remarkable one-off performances, he has not found the consistency to get back into the top 32 and get seeded at the Majors. Instead he loses to players like world No.32 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, a solid baseliner who Murray would have put away in his prime here.