Andy Murray sails into last eight by demolishing 'Missile'

Sports Writer

Tuesday 4 September 2012

The Milos Raonic serve is billed as the tennis equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction, but so effectively did Andy Murray spike the 21-year-old's guns here in New York last night that he might as well have been firing blanks.

Murrar rises to return a Raonic serve

First the Olympic champion neutralised the self-styled Missile from Montenegro's mighty fusillades with the unerring range of his return game, then he displayed his full range of passes, lobs and deft drop shots to leave the naturalised Canadian pressing the self destruct button.

The Scot's game has been hit-and-miss during his progress through the US Open, but his radar was well and truly on throughout the two hours exactly it took for him to complete this 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory. Even his opponent seemed shocked and awed by what he witnessed. Murray goes on to meet Marin Cilic, the No 12 seed, in his eighth successive Grand Slam quarter-final. The Croat has a wounding defeat of the World No 4 on his cv, recorded here in 2009, but Murray has prevailed on the six other meetings between the two men. In every sense, this was a warning shot to the rest of the tournament. "Today was by far my best match of the tournament," the Scot said afterwards. "Hopefully I'll get a good rest in and tomorrow get pumped and ready for the quarter-finals because, you know, you're only a few sets away from maybe competing for a Grand Slam." Whereas his last round had been played out in extreme temperatures, the climatic conditions at Flushing Meadows last night would have been distinctly familiar to the Scot. His match had to be brought forward a couple of hours in order to beat the forecast showers, and began amid chilly wind and occasional spots of rain. The threatened downpour arrived as scheduled, leaving the Scot to reflect that he had got off court just in time. "We found out the change of start time about five minutes after we arrived," Murray said afterwards. "It throws you a little bit, but both of us agreed to go on at 7.30pm (US time) because we heard that rain was coming at 9.30. I was glad we got it done before the rain started." Raonic, who models his game and all-round demeanour on 'Pistol' Pete Sampras, was determined to win or lose by his own racket and - although Murray took the first point of the match - some observers must have feared the worst when he sent down two aces in his opening service game. But whereas the 21-year-old sent down 29 aces in his previous match against James Blake, there were only 14 here, mainly by virtue of the Scot's incredible reflex and touch on the return. With his opponent blotting his copybook with six double faults, before long those returns and defensive blocks were routinely landing inches inside the Raonic baseline, and break points on his serve were occurring with regularity. By the end, a total of 12 had come along, Murray winning four of them. Even more pleasing for the Olympic champion was the fact that he managed to get through this match without giving his opponent a single opening in his own service games. "On this surface against a big hitter like him, normally you will have to save some break points," Murray said. "But I served really smart today, did a good job behind my serve. I did the same at the Olympics, you know I didn't get broken the last three matches I played there." The Scot - who made just 12 unforced errors in the entire match - increased the pressure at key moments, converting on the second of three set points to take the first 6-4. Raonic was playing catch-up again at 3-2 in the second set, and with British no. 1 dominant, winning ever single game became a chore for his opponent. Raonic did well just to prolong matters to 5-4, before a Murray ace on set point after a Hawk-Eye challenge completed it by an identical 6-4 scoreline. Incidentally, making correct challenges was one of the few areas where the Scot was off his mark, getting almost every one wrong, but such a poor ratio was rendered a detail when he broke twice more in the third set to see a bemused Raonic off the premises. The 21-year-old hugged his tormentor at the net, and said afterwards that the Scot's mastery had been more complete even than the lessons he had previously received from Roger Federer. "There was not much I could do," the gallant loser said afterwards. "I tried everything. I tried three different ways. I tried playing back, playing high to him, I tried coming in a lot. Everything really. He didn't have solutions all the time. But he would put it together for a game. "At the net he said, 'sorry, I got lucky a few times'. I said 'don't be sorry, it was simply amazing, keep it up and you'll do well'. Considering what I was able to put into the match, to have somebody that took me out of it and neutralise me like that took it even one step further [than Federer]." There was even time for the by-now obligatory injury scare, the Scot clutching his wrist when he didn't quite catch one Raonic serve. "Sometimes when someone serves 140mph at you, if you don't catch it right, maybe a bit late, especially after a couple hours of returning it, it might be a little bit sore," the Scot said. "But in the last game it felt all right." It must have been a good night for Team Murray. At one point, TV cameras even appeared to show Ivan Lendl sharing a joke with someone and smiling.

Contextual targeting label:

Sport

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Andy Murray sails into last eight by demolishing 'Missile'

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED