ANDY Murray put his injury worries firmly behind him to see off Andrey Kuznetsov and move into the US Open fourth round last night, keeping alive the prospect of meeting Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
The Scot, who suffered no repeats of the body cramps that caused such discomfort in the first round, took two hours and 35 minutes to beat the world No 97 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and set up a match with either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta tomorrow.
That would leave Murray just one victory away from a potential meeting with world No 1 Djokovic, who destroyed American Sam Querrey in straight sets.
"I got off to a good start and had a cushion when he came back into it. I tried just to stay solid but it was a tough match," Murray said.
"There were a lot of long rallies. I feel better than I did in the first round. I ate and drank the right things and I felt fine and definitely better than the other day."
Djokovic, meanwhile, is looking back at his imperious best after arriving in New York off the back of unusually disappointing runs in Toronto and Cincinnati.
The Serbian said: "I am peaking at the right time, at the right tournament. This is where I want to play my best tennis.
"I didn't do as well as I wanted in the lead-up tournaments, Toronto and Cincinnati.
"I didn't know how emotionally drained I was in a way until I played Tsonga in Canada and … I didn't feel I could deliver my best.
"That's something that, when I analysed … what I had two months before, was normal in a way. I was expecting of myself, and I always am expecting from myself, the best and to go as far as I can.
"Obviously, emotionally I wasn't ready for those tournaments. But the upside of losing early in Cincinnati is that I had more time to prepare for the US Open." l Report, page 15
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article