Andy Murray has jokingly weighed in on Veronika Kudermetova and Zhu Lin's "marathon" first set in their clash at the WTA Elite Trophy, saying that the 83-minute opener was "nothing."

The WTA Elite Trophy is currently taking place in Zhuhai, China, where the Top 12 players who did not qualify for the WTA Finals are battling it out for the title. In the final match of the first day, World No. 16 Kudermetova met with wildcard home player Zhu Lin on Huafa Center Court.

Their group stage clash turned into a grueling struggle when their first set went on for 1 hour and 23 minutes, during which time both players broke each other and Kudermetova found herself with set point at 5-4. However, Lin fought back to bring it to a tiebreak.

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Murray delivers "gold"-level response

After battling it out on the tiebreak, Lin edged ahead to win the first set 7-6 (5), before dominating the second to win it 6-1. Following the end of the opener, tennis journalist José Morgado took to social media to jokingly compare the situation to Murray's matches.

The former World No. 1 has become known for enduring some lengthy and difficult battles on the court as of late, and this was on clear display once again in his first-round clash with Yannick Hanfmann at the Swiss Indoors Basel yesterday, October 23.

It took 84 minutes to close out the first set alone, with the match going on for a total of 2 hours and 18 minutes before the Brit secured the win 7-5, 6-4.

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"Andy Murray is that you?" joked Morgado on X, formerly known as Twitter. The 36-year-old replied with a witty reference to his long matches, writing:

"83 minutes for a 7-6 set is nothing Jose come on! come back to me when they hit 85 minutes for a set."

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