Andy Murray: that was tough, but it's made me tougher

Sports Writer

Sunday 2 September 2012

Andy Murray last night spoke of his relief about coming through a mentally and physically draining four-set encounter with Spain's Feliciano Lopez in the scorching mid-afternoon New York heat but insisted the experience would help him in future rounds.

Temperatures at court side on the Louis Armstrong Arena topped 100F on a day which also saw Belarusian player Olga Govortsova require a blood pressure check and two junior players carted off to receive medical treatment.

But crucially Murray managed to keep his cool in no fewer than three tie-breaks to win a gruelling 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (4) victory to set up a last 16 encounter with the dangerous no 15 seed Milos Raonic of Canada. "It was obviously very, very hot and very humid," the Scot said afterwards. "It's a quick court, that one, as well. Obviously Feliciano has one of the best serves in the game so there's some games that were frustrating at times because you have no say in how the points go. "Mentally it was quite a challenging match because I was up a break I think in two of the last three sets," he added. "It was also physically challenging although I actually felt better towards the end of the match than I did maybe halfway through it. "Normally we get that three week training block in Miami before we come over to the States. But because of the Olympics, we obviously missed that. So it's been tough. "But I hope it's a benefit, if anything. I need to spend time on the court. I need to go through tough moments, tough situations. I've been in pressure situations but not necessarily in physically demanding conditions." Murray had only dropped one set in the last six meetings against Lopez - including a victory at precisely this stage 12 months back - but it was a different story yesterday. The Spaniard actually won eight points more than the Scot during the match, but Murray's sheer strength of will at times saw him through. "The last few sets were tough," he conceded. "I just played a little bit better at the end of the tie-breaks, a little bit more solid than him, and that was the difference. But, you know, he had chances." Although the Scot appeared to find a second wind from somewhere in the fourth set, he was thankful that his ordeal wasn't prolonged any further, particularly when coming out on top during a seesawing 23-shot rally when break point down at 5-5 in the fourth set. "Points like that can change the match," he said. "The momentum was kind of with me a little bit after that; whereas before that it was with him." After rehydrating and refuelling his body, Murray will today start concentrating on the challenge of Raonic. The Montenegro-born Croat is a player against whom he actually has a losing record. He has been pitted against the 21-year-old three times, but the pair have only actually only played once, each player having a walkover victory on their record, and Raonic winning a tight match in Barcelona earlier this year. "He has a huge serve," said Murray. "This is his best year on the tour so far and it will be tough."

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Andy Murray: that was tough, but it's made me tougher

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