Andy Murray column: Australian Open return & Cristiano Ronaldo-style celebrations

Britain's Andy Murray is back at the Australian Open and back as a BBC Sport columnist.

The 34-year-old former world number one talks about his thrilling five-set win against Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili in round one and blocking out Cristiano Ronaldo-style 'Siuuuu' celebrations from the fans.

Three years ago in Melbourne I thought I had potentially played the last match of my career.

You will remember the emotional news conference where I said I thought it might be the case, although on reflection I probably didn't convey my thoughts as well as I might have done.

I was so anxious before going in there!

Emotions had been building up for a long time, because I was hampered by the hip injury and it was affecting my life outside of tennis too.

So to be finally back at the Australian Open again this year — playing on the same court as 2019 and then beating Basilashvili in five sets — was a brilliant experience.

In 2019 it didn't feel like it was me out there on the court. I was severely hampered physically and had little to no preparation.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to play again and if I had beaten Roberto Bautista Agut I probably wouldn't have physically been able to play the next match.

After the hip surgery, and loads of stops and starts with more niggles, playing in Grand Slams again is a place which I have worked so hard to get to.

It would have been easy to stop playing — but I kept trying and trying. I'm proud of that work and effort.

There was another setback last year when I couldn't come to Australia because I tested positive for coronavirus shortly before I was supposed to fly out.

That was brutal for me. I had trained really hard through the end of November and December, I was playing really well.

I had