ANDY MURRAY could barely walk properly the previous time he won a Major match prior to Monday night.
And the Scot will hope his battle-hardened body can withstand the pain and strain of going through the Wimbledon wringer once more today.
Muzza, 34, has not won back-to-back matches at one of the four Slams since Wimbledon 2017.
Impressively he beat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka over five gruelling sets at Flushing Meadows last autumn but then woke up the next day in agony and was then spanked in the second round in New York by Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Playing best-of-five-sets tennis puts an awful pressure on the body and more so for someone who has a metal hip implant.
Psychologically, Murray knows today’s second-round clash against German Oscar Otte is a big one if he win two Wimbledon matches in three days.
Murray said: “I have to wait and see how I feel. In New York for example, I actually did pretty well in the first round against Nishioka and felt fine that evening.
“Then I woke up the next day and could barely walk. My groin was really painful and I didn’t recover from that match at all.
“Right now I feel fine. My legs were a bit heavy and tired after Monday’s match. But pain-wise, I feel all right just now.
“It’s all about recovering and doing all of that stuff right, trying to prioritise sleep. I’ll want to try and get as much sleep as I can and eat as good as I can.”
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Murray battled the demons in his head as he made hard work of beating Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-3 in an emotional rollercoaster ride, his first SW19 singles clash for four years.
At one point, it looked as if it would go all the way to five sets as Murray endured the unusual experience of losing SEVEN games in a row to the Georgian.
Though he ended up winning in four sets and delighted the Centre Court crowd, he feared the brickbats and criticisms if he had flopped on his comeback.
The former world No1 said: “There was pressure for me all through the match. And I dealt with the pressure of the match really well until the end of the third set.
“I don’t think there are many players that would have won that fourth set.
“Having to come back out and win a match, having just lost seven games in a row, a lot of players would have capitulated there – and I did the opposite of that.
“There is pressure in that moment. When you’re starting the fourth set, having just lost seven games on the spin, you know the headlines of that are ‘you have choked’.
“You know, it is one of the worst defeats of your career – that’s what you would have heard after that match.”
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