by Mark Bassey

Pat Cash has claimed that Andy Murray had a ‘meltdown’ in the final of the Australian Open on Sunday.

The Scot started brightly and the first two sets dragged on for over two hours. However, Novak Djokovic powered on from the third set and eventually landed his fifth Australian Open title and his eighth Grand Slam title.

The match last three hours and 39 minutes and ended 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 6-0 in favour of the Serb.

“Things just started snowballing for Murray once he lost that concentration when everything was going his way,” Cash said.

“He hasn’t put up a great fight, he hasn’t. He absolutely collapsed. Sorry but you don’t put a rose tint on this. He melted down, he’s been disappointing and the bottom line is, the situation got too much.”

The 1987 Wimbledon champion added during commentary on BBC Radio Five Live: “He has to look at it and say “I can’t do this again. What has gone wrong, what did I do wrong?” It’s the same stuff that’s happened his whole career.

“He needs to find the right balance, the right balance between attack and defence. He’ll be sat there thinking “what happened, what did I do, I’m a disgrace, I’ve let everyone down”, but he’ll learn from it.”

Murray has not beaten a world No 1 since defeating Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon final.

ifreke

Ifreke Inyang is a public commentator and social media critic who has worked with a number of high profile publications across the country.