Roger Federer’s five-year unbeaten reign at the US Open came to a dramatic five sets conclusion Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro claimed his first Grand Slam title.

Del Potro twice fought back from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. and also becoming the first man other than Rafael Nadal to beat Federer in the final of a Grand Slam tournament.

Del Potro’s performance all the more impressive as this the 20-year olds maiden Grand Slam final and first victory over Roger Federer – Now that is pulling out a performance when it really matters. After winning the 2009 US Open an emotional Del Potro said

I had two dreams this week, One was to win the US Open and the other one is to be like Roger. One is done, but I need to improve a lot to be like you, You fought until the final point. You are a great champion. I’m very happy to be here with this crown, with these people, on this court. This will be in my mind forever.

A slightly less emotional Federer said

I would like to congratulate Juan Martin on an unbelievable tournament. I had a great one but he was the best. I would have never believed I could win five in a row here. It has been an amazing run for me. I was two points from the match today. That’s the way it goes sometimes. But I’ve had an unbelievable run this year. Being in all major finals and winning two of those. Sure, I would have loved to win those two as well. But the year has been amazing already. Got married and had kids, don’t know how much more I want.

As for Andy Murray – this will go down as surely his most disappointing grand slam performance yet, the wrist injury may yet explain is poor showing but the way he went out as put a huge dent in his grand slam credibility.

It was the strangest of matches and the type of performance that we rarely if ever see from Andy Murray as the Scot was comprehensivly beaten 7-5 6-2 6-2 in the 4th round of the US Open by Marin Cilic.

Murray paid the price for a truly awfull performance that may or  may not have been hampered by an injured wrist, though he refused to blame the injury afterwards, he played with a bandage on his wrist but it did not appear to hinder hi, though Murray rarely talks publically about his weeknesses.

Murray, seeded second in this years event, did have two set points for the first set and if he had won one of them, the match could have taken a different direction, the second and third were simply “mince” though, Murray made mistake after mistakes to let the 16th seed to extend his lead.

Cilic will now play Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarter-finals, which may well be a blessing in disguise for Murray – as Del Potro would have skelped Murray if the Scot played like the way he played today – As these two will in the future be world 1 and 2, it may well be the only positive Murray can take from the match.

Not surprisingly Murray  was disappointed with defeat

Regardless of my wrist, I lost the match, I returned poorly. He served well and that was really the difference. I just couldn’t get myself into enough return games to get myself back into the match, A lot of times when I lose I get asked ‘why did you look flat?’ but it is not always the case – today I couldn’t get myself into games and he was dominating points so there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Cilic hit 35 winners compared to just 13 by Murray, who failed to convert any of seven break points. Though don’t beleive the “superb Cilic” headlines you may read, Cilic played well, well enough to beat Andy Murray – But Murray was poor today, very poor and despite what he may claim about his wrist, phychologically or physically it hurt him today – he threw away the second and thrid set and that is something we rarely see Murray do.

The usual Murray doubters will again surface claiming the Scot can’t win a grand slam, too passive, not aggressive enough and all that jazz – He’ll now have to wait till 2010 to prove them wrong.

Andy Murray failed to produce his best tennis and fell at the last hurdle losing the US Open final to former world number 1 Roger Federer 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

Federer has now won a record breaking 5 consecutive US Open titles adding to that his 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles making him the first player ever to win 5 consecutive grand slam titles at two grand slam events.

Although Federer played some of his best tennis, Murray never quite hit the form that seen him beat Rafael Nadal yesterday. The biggest weakness was on his serve, he failed to win any easy points with it and got into trouble far too often. His first serve % was low and it was back to that all too familiar weak second serve.

Despite this Murray has his chances and will have nightmares about not converting one of the three break points in the second set when he has 0-40 on the Federer’s serve.

If we have learned anything about Murray this year, it’s that the Scot learns his lessons and always comes back stronger, it won’t be long before we can say the Andy Murray, Grand Slam Champion. After the match Murray said,

I had a great tournament but I came up against, in my opinion, the best player ever to play game the today, I got the better of him the last two times and he definitely set the record straight today. I’ve learnt I’ve got a lot of improving to do if I want to win one of these things. I love playing in front of this crowd – it’s been the best time of my life.

The sun has set on Andy Murray’s US open and the young man from Dunblane can walk away with his head held high, he couldn’t quite deliver the UK’s first grand slam male singles title for 72 years, but it is surely just a matter of time before the 21 year secures that elusive title.

The match itself got of to a bad start for Murray, with the first set going all the way of the former world number 1. From the off Federer looked on omnious form, holding serve comfortably and making Murray work twice as hard for the Scot even to win a point his own serve. The Swiss ace managed his first chance of a break of serve in just Murray’s second service game, though like Murray had did yesterday against Nadal, a big first serve saved the Scotsman.

That was just delaying the inevatable though in Murray’s next service game a double fault gave Federer a 0-30 lead and soon Federer had his 2nd and 3rd break point, he only needed one, breaking the Scot to 15 for the first blood in the match. It soon got worse for grand slam final virgin, he was broken again in the 8th game and Federer claimed the set 6-2.

The situation did not get any better for Murray as he was broken yet again in his opening service game of the second set. Federer had now broken Murray more times than the Scot had actual games on the board.

Murray breaks back to love and all of a sudden Murray had found his feet in this final, he holds his serve comfortably in the next game and then take the great Roger Federer to 0-40 again on the Number 2’s serve. He is the great Roger Federer though and save them all he did. Though the rally in point at 15-40 looked like Federer hit two balls long, Murray reluctant to challenge as he was still in the point, with no hawk eye replay we’ll never know if they were out. This Murray’s big chance to take the lead in the set and would have completely changed the complex of the match. Murray still with some work to do mentally on handling those big points.

After losing vital break point chnaces against Nadal Murray was broken in his next service game, but champions learn from their mistakes and Murray held his service game to keep the set level at 3-3.

The next few games went with serve, though Murray did look the more likley to break, he didnt though and with score at 6-5, the Scot needed to hold serve to take the set into a tiebreaker. Murray folded and gave his serve up to love with Federer being ultra aggresive. Another shot form Federer looked out at 0-15 and again Murray failed to challange. The set was over and Murray now had a mountain to climb.

Climbing mountains is what Murray does best though, he is Scottish after all! He was’nt satisfied though to just climb Ben Nevis, he wanted to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain of all. And in tennis terms that would be not only beating Federer from 2 sets to nil down but also a break down in the third set. Thats what happened as in the second set the Scot dropped his serve on his opening service game of the third set and Federer had 3-0 lead.

I’m not quite sure what mountain would describe having to beat Roger Federer from two sets down and 5-0 down. I don’t think that even Sir Edmund Hillary could have climbed that mountain.

Murray was giving it a go though, he held his next service game, to get his name on the board and then did something he had only managed to do once in the match so far, he broke the Federer serve to pull the score back to 5-2, he then saved one match point before secumbing to the greatest player of the 21st centuary.

Andy Murray, the Scottish tennis sensation has just beaten the best player of 2008 and all that stands between him and his first ever grand slam title is the best player of the 21st century. Murray will take on Roger Federer this evening at 5pm (10pm UK time) on the 22,000 all seater Arthur Ashe Stadium Court.

The Swiss number 1 was world number 1 for more than 4 years, 237 consecutive weeks as the best player in the world – he has competed in every semi final of a major for the last 4 and half years and only failed to reach the final once in the last 14 grand slams and only lost a final to one man Rafael Nadal.

He is bidding to win an unbelievable 5th consecutive US open title and set new a record in the sport, an achievement that would go a long way to heal the wounds of a poor season by Roger Federer’s standards.

Murray will of course go into the match as underdog, but the Scot does hold a winning record against Federer, they have met three times and Murray has won their last two encounters.

Their first match was in the Bangkok final in 2005, when a teenage Andy Murray lost 6-3 7-5, they then met in Cincinnati in 2006, Murray this time beating the Swiss ace 7-5 6-4 – it was first real result that proved Murray could mix with best.

Most recently the duo met in Dubai earlier this year and Murray once again won 6-7(8-6) 6-3 6-4, it was after this match that Federer openly criticised Murray for being too negative, an unimpressed Federer said,

I don’t think that he’s changed his game a whole lot since I played him in the Bangkok final, ‘Not that I’m disappointed but I really would have thought he would have changed it in some ways. It sort of works for him but he’s going to have to grind very hard for the next few years if he keeps playing that way. He stands way far behind on the court and that means you’ve got to do a lot of running. He tends to wait a lot for an opponent’s mistake. I gave him the mistakes in the match, but over a 15-year career, you want to look to win a point more often than wait for the guy to miss. That’s what has served me well, but who knows, he may surprise us and do it for 20 years.

The odds of Murray win tonight is a testament to his recent form, any other first time grand slam finalists playing the great Roger Federer in the US Open would be very long. Murray is only a 7/4 outshot, with Federer 1/2 on to win. This is an event that Roger Federer has not lost a match at in the last 5 years.

Britain enjoys nothing more than hyping up anyone who shows any signs of sporting talent only to berate them when the much desired success is not achieved. Tim Henman knows all too well about this, more recently Lewis Hamilton suffered the backlash of the UK press for not winning the F1 championship last season. The England football team goes through the same torture every 2 years, with the press enjoying nothing more than getting all of England into a frenzy and convinced there is only one winner only to vilify the team and manager when they ultimately fail to achieve success.

Murray will not follow this pattern though after all he is not English – he is proudly Scottish!

Being Scottish has not stopped the British press hyping him up only to knock him down when success did not come immediately after breaking on to the tennis scene at Wimbledon 2005. At 21 he has not yet won a major and up until a week ago the majority of tennis press wrote of his chances of ever winning one.

Over the last three years Murray has very much still been growing and developing, he has steadily increased his year end ATP rankings and beat the top players on quite consistent basis. Though only thing that much of the Brittish press could write was Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have won majors at a younger age, so Murray is ruubish and will never win a major.

Tonight Andy Murray will win his first grand slam title, the huge amount of pressure placed on Murray to win will be huge and while pressure has made guys like Tim Henman crack under the enormous weight of expectation – Murray ignores most of the hype and almost thrives on the scale of the occasion.

I predicated an Andy Murray win against Rafael Nadal and I predict the first ever Scottish US Open Champion tonight. The long awaited British grand slam champion will arrive and he is 100 miles away from Tim Henman and what the world may have expected him to be.

Come on Murray!

Andy Murray, the young man from a wee town in Scotland claimed his placed in tennis history today, stunning the world number 1, Rafael Nadal in their US Open semi Final to reach his first grand slam final.

The match resumed after a rain delay yesterday with Murray 2 sets up, Nadal secured the third set before Murray fought back from a break of serve down in the fourth set to claim his famous victory 6-2 7-6(7-5) 4-6 6-4.

Andy Murray entered the match having lost every match he has ever played against Rafael Nadal; in their 5 previous encounters he had only won a set in their first encounter back at the Australian open in 2007. Only 2 months ago on the centre court of Wimbledon, Nadal had convincingly brushed aside Andy Murray in straight sets. Nadal went onto win Wimbledon and then claim Olympic Gold in Beijing, but none of that matter today – Murray was simply better than Nadal today and the Spaniard can have no excuses for his loss.

Andy Murray will now face Roger Federer in the final on Monday at 5pm (10pm UK time) for the chance to become US Open Champion and the first Britton to win a grand slam men’s title since Fred Perry 77 years ago.

After the most amazing performance yesterday from Andy Murray, some doubted that Murray could keep up the form and the rain delay would allow Nadal enough time to regroup and hit back at Murray. With Nadal up a break leading 3-2 in the third, the match began with the Spaniard serving. The opening games all went with serve, with Murray looking still as formidable on his own serve, though slightly less menacing on return as he did yesterday.

Murray raised his game with Nadal serving for the set at 5-4 and produced the first break point of the afternoon, Nadal though is number 1 in the world and fires down an ace to save the point and goes on to win the next two points and win the third set.

Nadal’s only break point and break of serve came in the opening game of the third set and when Murray went 0-30 down in the opening game of the fourth set the signs were looking ominous. Murray was able to rally himself though and levelled up at 30-30 before giving Nadal a huge chance with double fault. Just as Nadal had done in the previous game, Murray saves the break point with and ace and then served out the game for an important hold.

The next 10 minutes in the match produced some of the best tennis you will ever see, Murray raced into a 15-40 lead, but Nadal’s serve was firing and he saved first with a big serve and forehand combo and then the next with ace. Murray remained focused though and brings up another break point with an unstoppable backhand pass down the line, the break point come and goes though as Murray nets a regulation backhand and we are back to deuce.

A familiar pattern emerges with Murray playing blistering tennis on the deuce point to rack up more break points, before tensing up and making the error on the break point opportunity, another 3 break points come and go and this game look like it may determine the match. Murray gains yet another break point, number 7 in this game if you lost count and Nadal not for the first saves with an ace. Nadal would finally hold the game, which could have proved a brutal blow for Murray.

What usually happened in situations like this is the player who fails to convert numerous break chances is immediately broken themselves on their next service game. That’s what happened to Murray, with his composure seemingly gone, four unforced errors from Murray allows Nadal to break serve to love and this match was heading for 5 sets.

The set was threatening to run away from Murray, as Nadal consolidated the break by holding his serve and Murray 0-30 down on his next service game. On reflection of this match the next four points may indeed have been the point when Murray won this match, it would have been easy for Murray to give up on this set at this point, but he never. He served out the game winning the next 3 points to secure his service game.

Murray’s uncanny ability to make players play one more shot than they need to serves him well in the next game, with Nadal serving the score makes its way to deuce, with Nadal in control of rally he sends Murray one way and then fires ball cross court in opposite direction with a shot that no one could return, no one except Murray that is, he can’t get much on it, but it’s enough to make Nadal player another shot, which the Spaniard mishits into the net, bringing up Murray’s 18th break point – He’s failed to convert the last 15 thought – Lucky 16 for Andy Murray as Nadal goes long with a forehand and Murray breaks back.

So much of a tennis match is played in the minds of each player, from only dropping his serve to love a dew games before, Murray holds his next service game to love taking his first lead in the fourth set at 4-3 and the score moves onto 5-4, with Murray just one game away from winning.

After to quite fortunate net cords Murray finds himself 30-30 and only two points from victory, A big serve from Nadal another point for Murray after another long rally sees the score move onto deuce. After three and half hours of scintillating tennis Murray secures his first match point after one of the matches best rallies Murray finishing the point of by taking the initiative and moving into net and punching away a volley.

Nadal looked like a beaten man and on match point makes a crucial mistake and brings Murray into net with poor drop shot, the Scot chases it down and sends a backhand pass around the stranded world number one. Game Set and Match Andy Murray.

After the match Murray met American funnyman Will Ferrell who congradulated the Scot on his win and in a rare glimse of Murray letting loose he joked with Hollywood star and even tried to blag a free DVD. When he eventually got round to speaking to waiting reporters Murray said, 

It’s awesome to beat him, a great feeling, He’s beaten me five times in a row, so that was tough, and to do it in a semi meant it was really difficult. With the rain delay yesterday, and it was windy today, there were a lot of different things, but I’m happy I came through in the end. It was really tough to serve from the near end, it was very windy, so I knew I was going to have chances to break and I just had to hang in.

The BIG 3 has just become the BIG 4!