Andy Murray primed for US Open success
Andy Murray will arrive at the US Open a Grand Slam title away from proving himself worthy of inclusion among the elite of today’s game. But with a strong summer behind him, might it be Murray’s time at Flushing Meadows this year?
It didn’t seem particularly likely as the world No. 4 parted ways with coach Miles Maclagan post-Wimbledon, and announced he wouldn’t be seeking to appoint a replacement until after the year’s final Grand Slam, but Murray’s recent results tell a different tale.
They speak of a player who is at his most comfortable on hard courts – with or without a full-time coach in his players’ box – where the bounce is true and predictable and just that bit more conducive to allowing Murray make his shots.
Even more promisingly for the Scot, they show that he’s capable of defeating both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the same tournament, which he did to defend his Rogers Cup title in Toronto earlier this month, the first time he’d achieved that feat in his career.
It’s a performance that may just remove a mental roadblock for Murray as he returns to New York this year, where he’ll potentially have to complete the same double if he’s to lift the silverware that he stood on centre court and watched Federer hold aloft at the end of the 2008 final.
Murray had defeated Nadal in a four-set semi to get there; had perhaps been forced to dig too deep into his reserves in doing so to offer a serious challenge to the defending champion, who rolled to a fairly comfortable 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 victory.
This year’s Rogers Cup also marked the first time in four attempts that Murray had defeated Federer in the final of a tournament, and might just erase some more of those demons that plagued the British No. 1 as his form took a nosedive in the aftermath of his defeat by Federer in the final of the Australian Open this year.
The fact that in the months since that Melbourne Park final Federer has lost the aura of invincibility that, as then world No. 1 and 15-time Grand Slam champion (the Australian Open was his 16th major title), he carried with him onto the Rod Laver Arena at the start of the year, surely also plays to Murray’s favour.
With Robin Soderling and Tomas Berdych defeating Federer in the quarter-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon respectively, Murray must think that if the Swiss crosses his path in New York this year, he too can emerge victorious.
The 23-year-old will know that’s the case if he finds himself across the net from Nadal (2008 proved that), who is missing only the US Open from his Grand Slam collection. While the days when the Spaniard may have been regarded as a clay-court specialist are long gone, there’s also little doubt that Murray gains more enjoyment from the fast courts at Flushing Meadows than Nadal experiences on the same surface.
Nadal may have seemed nigh on unbeatable on clay and grass this year, on which he claimed five titles including Roland Garros and Wimbledon, but the US Open hard-court warm-ups have reminded us all that the world’s top-ranked player is still only human as he bowed out in the semis of the Masters 1000 in Canada and the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters.
Murray has one more chance in 2010 to make sure this isn’t another year spent waiting, and watching his rivals bask in their Grand Slam triumphs.
Now might just be his time to join them.
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