THERE will be no Super Saturday at this year’s US Open. The historical convention of squeezing in the two men’s semi-finals and the women’s final into the one day has been scrapped but instead at least there promises to be a fantastic first round. Andy Murray’s opening encounter with Australian wild child Nick Kyrgios is the kind of fixture to set the pulses racing.
Kyrgios has been short of friends recently, understandably considering a rather rude piece of on-court chat aimed in the direction of Stanislas Wawrinka and his girlfriend Donna Vekic which earned the 20-year-old a £22,000 fine and a 28-day suspended ban. Murray has been one of Kyrgios’ biggest supporters on the tour but to date but he has extended him little sympathy on the court. The pair have met three times with Murray winning all three without the loss of a set. Twice in Grand Slam play, first at the Australian Open quarter finals then the French Open last 32, he has prevailed without the loss of a set.
John McEnroe, the orginial ‘Super Brat’, is another who rates Kyrgios highly, but he spent some time with Murray at his tennis school in New York recently and feels the Scot is in good shape as he attempts to win his third Grand Slam title. Having said that, the dangerous Wawrinka is a potential quarter final opponent, with a meeting with Roger Federer – who took care of him in the final at Cincinnati recently – waiting in the semi-final.
“Andy was nice enough to get a quiet hit in and came over to my club which was great,” said McEnroe, who will be working for broadcasters ESPN at the tournament. “We had a little camp going on so the kids were obviously tremendously excited to meet him and he spent a little bit of time with them which was great. We had a nice talk and he is in a good frame of mind and so he should be. He beat [Novak] Djokovic in Montreal to break his losing streak against him, while Roger [Federer] has played some amazing tennis. While he lost to him he was obviously feeling some fatigue from his efforts in Montreal at the time.
“But now that he has broken his streak against Novak he will be feeling better about his chances,” McEnroe added. “He has worked hard over the last 18 months to get himself in the type of position he is right now. He knows he has a better shot of beating Federer in a best of five set match but it obviously didn’t happen at Wimbledon. While Andy has lost five times in a row to Federer now you are talking about one of the best players who has ever lived, who is playing tremendously, so it is not like he is going to walk through this. He know he is going to have to keep adding to his game, and he has Jonas Bjorkman on tap to try to figure out ways he can be more aggressive and take advantage of his skills at the net. We will see if he can bring that to the table at the Open.”
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