Andy Murray

Andy Murray will once again step onto the Arthur Ashe court in this year’s US Open in the most important match of his short career to date. All that has gone before in Andy Murray’s career will become that less significant if he can win this match and book his place in the US Open final.

The match is scheduled for an 11am start (4pm UK time) on Saturday due to the expected inclement weather warning with the remnants of tropical storm Hanna forecasted to hit the New York area. The whole of “super Saturday” may be completely washed out, which would mean play would be required on Monday.

In order for Murray to win tomorrow, the young scot will need to beat the incredible world number 1 Rafael Nadal, a feat that man from Dunblane has not managed to do in 5 attempts. Yet this will not matter when Murray steps on to one of the biggest courts in the world on Saturday, the Murray that will walk out on court is not the Murray that lost those 5 matches, he is not the Andy Murray that could not last the pace in Melbourne 2 years ago, nor will he be the player thoroughly out classed by Nadal on the Spanish hard courts earlier this year, he won’t even be the Murray that couldn’t rise to the occasion in that Wimbledon Quarter final. The Andy Murray that will step out on court will be a man that knows he can beat the best the world, who knows he is fitter than anyone on the ATP tour, including Rafael Nadal and most importantly a man that will refuse to lose until the last ball is hit in anger.

He may have been beat 5 times by Rafael Nadal, but the Scot will win tomorrow in my opinion, He’ll win because he now believes he can win – He’ll win because he is now fitter than Nadal – He’ll win because he can play smarter than Nadal. Most importantly he’ll win because he needs to win, Murray is now at the peak of his form and playing on his best surface and although Nadal is hugely improved on hard courts, it remains the Spaniards least favourite surface and whilst Nadal has seemed unbeatable all year, the Spaniard has looked very beatable at this year’s US Open and has yet to play anyone of top 10 pedigree.

If Murray doesn’t win on Saturday then the title may well be on the way to the Spaniard, neither of the two players in the other semi final, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic have yet to show their best form and the Spaniard would surely be favourite to cap of an amazing season. Of the 4 men left in the event, it is Murray who has shown the best form, his demolition of the world number 10 Stanislas Wawrinka is easily the best tennis performance of the 2008 US Open. His fight back and guts shown against Meltzer is the best fighting performance and his win over Del Potro was the mental performance of this year’s event.

Of course Rafael Nadal is the overwhelming odds on favourite to win with the bookmakers and based on their head to head record, Nadal’s Grand Slam pedigree and the Spaniard’s amazing form over the last 6 months it’s hard to argue with that - they do agree that tomorrow will be Murray’s best chance to date, his odds for their Wimbledon quarter final was 5/1 with some bookmakers and for tomorrows match most are offering 3/1. It’s definitely a bet that I will be taking, I say it again I think Murray will win. The best odds as usual can be found at betfair, and if you were thinking of betting for the first time, they are offering a free £10 bet when you sign up and bet £10.

Andy Murray flirted with disaster as he reached his first grand slam semi final after letting what seemed an unbeatable position slip from his grasp. Murray eventually winning 7-6(7-2) 7-6(7-1) 4-6 6-4 against Juan Martin Del Potro and ending the young man from Argentina’s impressive 23 match winning streak.

With Murray up two sets to love and a break to the good in the third set he looked certain to win comfortably in straight sets, but woeful serving and missed opportunities allowed Del Potro to win the third set and even at led twice by a break of serve in the fourth set - the alarm bells sounded for Murray at that point and he was able to raise his game to finally put Del Potro away.

With the history and words shared between these two we expected a fiery contest, on this occasion the two let their tennis do the talking and showed the US public some battling tennis. At the end of the match the pair seemed to have put their past behind them as the shook hands in longer than usual embrace.

The match as a whole followed this pattern of Murray taking advantage only to lose it back to Del Potro, it all started well for Murray, holding serve and breaking Del Potro in the Argentines first service game to lead 4-1 in the first set. Murray had done very little to win his advantage, a mix of decent drop shots and unforced errors had got him his lead and at this point and it only took Del Potro to raise his game by cutting down some of the errors to break back and then go on to secure another break to lead 5-4 with Del Potro serving for the first set.

It was now Murray’s turn to raise his game and break back, though he did get some help with two unforced errors from an obvious tight Del Potro. The set would be decided by a tie break and in recent months Murray has played some great tie breaks, this one would be no different, at 3-2 on serve with Del Potro serve, Murray produced the most sublime forehand drop shot that Del Potro could only watch and hope would fall short, it didn’t and Murray had the mini break. He consolidated that mini break with another and served out the tie break in fine style 7-2.

Murray did not drive home his advantage in the second and it looked like Del Potro would be first break, the man from Argentina had his chances producing break points in games 4, 6 and 8, though Murray came up with big ace or winner when required. The score moved onto 5-5 and Murray secured the first break of second set when Del Potro puts a backhand into the net. The advantage was short lived as Murray plays three of the worst points of his life which included a unusually woeful drop-shot an then blazes a forehand long to be broken to love and this set would be decided by another tie-break.

I did say Murray had been playing great tie breaks recently and what a start he made in this one, he raced into a 5-0 with three mini breaks which included two huge forehand winners. It didn’t take him long to finish this tie break off, going one better to win 7-1 this time.

Del Potro had received some treatment for his knee during the second set and was looked to be out of steam and as Murray ran him round the court another break of serve looked likely and Murray achieved this in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead, Del Potro throwing his racquet in rage after sending another forehand long.

With Del Potro moving slower than a heavyweight boxer it looked like it was game over, but like a heavyweight boxers Del Potro packs a mighty punch and he would not give up easily. In fact Del Potro would hit back immediately breaking back immediately with Murray again failing to build on his advantage. More chances would follow for Murray, but again Murray could not take them and then unthinkable happened, the big man from Argentina broke Murray again to lead 5-4 with a chance to serve out the match, which he did without too much fight from Murray.

In a lesson of firing home your advantage Del Potro broke the Scot in the opening game of the fourth, Murray looked completely out of sorts but gathers some composure to hold his own serve after Del Potro held his own comfortably. I don’t think any of the harshest of Murray’s critics would ever question is fighting qualities and whenever Murray is a break down, you know that he is always just a game away getting himself back into the set. A double fault from Del Potro, showing the Argentine teenager still has some nerves and a brilliant backhand from Murray gives the Scot the upper hand in Del Potro’s next service game and when Del Potro send yet another forehand long Murray secured the break back.

Murray’s serve was letting him down, the service winners had gone and he had to work harder and harder to win games on his serve, game 5 seen him save 3 break points to survive that game, but he would go down 0-40 in game 7 and Del Potro converted his second break to take another break lead in the fourth set.

Del Potro has never came back from two sets down and was looking like he may just break that record, but did I mention Murray was a fighter? And fight he did, never write Murray off, never ever. An awesome backhand volley and a forehand winner after a long rally that Murray looked to be on the back foot for most of allowed him to bring up more break back points at 15-40 on the Del Potro serve. He only needed one of them as Del Potro puts a backhand into the net.

With the William sisters waiting to get on court at this point Andy Murray would be well advised to finish this match off before he has to answer to the American sisters and their American fans waiting outside for the evening session to start.

Murray found his serve and held the next game comfortably, with Del Potro following suit to level at 5-5. Murray again produced an off service game and Del Potro sense’s a chance to break, he leads 15-30 before Murray steps up with 3 winners, a big first serve for a winner, a superb volley and a very welcome ace to take a 6-5 lead.

The moment of truth came for Del Potro, he needed to win this game to keep his unbeaten record going. The pressure was beginning to show as Murray went into 0-30 lead after two wayward shots by Del Potro, two shared points see Murray bring up his first match points at 15-40. Del Potro could only save one before Murray reaches his first grand slam semi final.

Andy will now face either Rafael Nadal or Marty Fish who will play later tonight in the evening session.

Andy Murray will continue his US Open adventure in the quarter finals on Wednesday against the current world number 17 Juan Martin Del Potro from Argentina.

The match will be third on the Arthur Ashe court, which will give a start time of no earlier than 2pm (7pm UK Time),  the doubles match on first has just taken over 2 hours so start time for Murray’s match will nearer to 8-30pm-9pm, depending how long the womens singles match between Safina and Pennetta takes.

In the only match the two have played on tour, the match ended in controversy when Del Potro, insulted Andy’s mum after the two were arguing over Del Porto aiming a volley at Murray’s head. Del Potro would then retire from the match at 1 set all complaining of back problems. If you have not seen the confrontation, here is a clip of the action

The young man from Argentina has grabbed a lot of headlines in recent weeks with his unbeaten run of 23 matches that has seen him win his first 4 ATP titles and rise from 65 to 17 in the world and after that jibe from Del Potro about Andy’s Mum, I’m sure Murray will relish ending Del Potro’s run tomorrow.

It’s an impressive feat to maintain an unbeaten record for that long, but we shouldn’t get too carried away with this record and Andy Murray should fear nothing. The four tournaments that Del Potro has won have been lower tier events that very few of the world’s top players attended, as one tennis pundit put it

Del Potro has won 4 Mickey mouse tournaments whilst the real players were playing master series events and Olympics

In his run to his four tournament wins, Del Potro only actually played three players in the top 40, Philipp Kohlschreiber(35th), Richard Gasquet(15th) and Andy Roddick(9th). His first tournament win came in the week after Wimbledon on the clay courts of Stuggart, with all the top players in the Canada preparing for US hard court season. He played no one of note until he beat Gasquet in the final.

He then moved onto Kitzbuhel in Austria, staying on clay he won the title their without playing a top 50 player all week. Del Potro did eventually make it to the US, but only once all the top players had left for the Beijing Olympics. He played the Los Angeles event and made the transition to hard courts well, he met Andy Roddick in the final of that event, which was the most significant win of the run so far, though Roddick was not having the best of time, he lost to world number 93 Viktor Troicki in his next event.

His final event win was in Washington, two weeks before the start of the US open, where the highest ranked player he beat was world number 48 Tommy Haas.

Andy Murray on the other hand was playing in the two major master events in this period, he reached the semi finals of the Roger’s Cup losing to world number 1 in waiting Rafael Nadal and he won the Cincinnati masters beating the world number 3 Novak Djokovic in the final. In this period he also beat world number 10 Stanislas Wawrinka, Ivo Karlovic, Dmitry Tursunov and another win against Djokovic.

The only negative result in this period was the loss to world number 77 Yen-Hsun Lu in the first round of the Olympics - The best players are beating by lower ranked guys from time to time especially if they are not prepared, like Murray was at the Olympics.

With the history between these two from earlier this year which reportedly spills over from their junior days were Murray beat Del Potro in the Junior French Open, this should be a spicy affair and it would appear that bookmakers agree that Murray is most likely to break Del Potro’s unbeaten run, with the Scot odds on favourite to win. If you are placing a bet, the best odds for a Murray win, can be found at betfair, who are offering a free £10 bet you sign up.

Andy Murray cruised into his first ever US Open quarter final with a surprisingly straightforward straight sets win over Stanislas Wawrinka only dropping 7 games on route to a 6-1 6-3 6-3 victory.

Murray and Wawrinka had already met 4 times on the ATP tennis circuit this year and each of those matches were close encounters with 3 of them going the distance - This match however was not close, Murray dominated from the first game breaking the Swiss number 2’s serve in the opening game. The match was so one sided at one point that the US crowd started a Mexican wave half through a game.

It was labour day in the US and the crowd were perhaps expecting a little bit more of a match after seeing Venus Williams steamroll her opponent, seeing Andy Murray dominate Wawrinka was not what the holiday atmosphere crowd wanted. Wawrinka did not play that badly, he just was not at his best and Andy Murray was .

It took until the 5th game of that opening set before Wawrinka got his name on the scoreboard after 2 breaks of serve by Murray, he broke a third time to take the set 6-1.

The second set started off a little more competitively though Murray still had chances to break immediately, the score moved on to 3-3 and with Murray serving Wawrinka’s game was raised and moved into a 15-40 lead. This however was no start of a comeback for the Swiss ace, Murray quickly extinguished any chance Wawrinka had with some powerful service winners and then the Scot went on to break in the next game and serve out the Set.

Wawrinka came back from two sets down on Saturday against an Italian qualifier, though when he looked across the net tonight he saw a soon to be top 5 player in the world, this win tonight securing Murray’s place in the elite top 5, Wawrinka knew he was beat.

Murray wasted no time in the third, securing a break of serve in the third game to lead 2-1, Wawrinka rarely troubled on any Murrays service games and even when Murray began to take his foot of pedal he was never punished by Wawrinka. Murray completed the match unbroken on his own serve and finished of the match with his sixth break of serve.

Andy Murray will now face Argentina’s Juan Martín del Potro in the quarter finals on Wednesday with Rafael Nadal and Marty Fish meeting in the other Quarter final in this half of the draw.

Andy Murray will continue his US Open campaign against the second best Swiss player in the world Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round later tonight(1st September), the Match will take place in the evening session and is second on the Arthur Ashe court (approx 1am-2am Tuesday morning in the UK)

Second best Swiss player in the world may not sound that imposing, but don’t forget that the number 1 Swiss player is Roger Federer and the young Swiss star has emerged this year from the former number 1’s shadow to establish himself as top 10 player.

Wawrinka is currently ranked 10th in the world and is also seeded 10th here at the 2008 US Open. Despite is great form this year the Swiss star has never won a singles title, he has reached two finals this year including the Rome masters event back in May losing to Novak Djokovic narrowly 6-4 3-6 3-6.

Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka are reportedly good friends off court and it seems these two’s careers are quite intertwined this year, they have met 4 times this year and 6 times in total. The record is 3 wins a piece though Murray holds the advantage of winning 3 of their 4 matches this year.

In the two events that Wawrinka’s has made the final he has met Andy Murray, he beat the Scotsman 6-2 7-6(7-5) on route to the masters final in Rome on clay in May. The pair had first met this year on the hard courts of the Doha final at the beginning of the year and this time it was Murray who was the victor 6-4 4-6 6-2. Their next encounter was again on hard courts, this time in Marseille in February, Murray again was the winner another close 3 setter 3-6 7-6(5) 6-1 - Murray went on to win that event in Marseille beating Mario Ancic in the final.

Their most recent match was just a few weeks ago in the Rogers Cup, a masters series event played on hard courts again in Toronto and the Scot would make it 3 wins out of 4 for the year - A slightly strange match were Wawrinka had some ankle issues in the first set, the final match score 6-2 0-6 6-4.

With Murray’s record over Wawrinka on hard courts this season, it’s no surprise that he is the favourite to take victory later on tonight. The Odds you will get of Murray winning against Wawrinka are roughly 2/5 and 7/4 on Wawrinka beating Murray, though you will find better on odds on both counts at betfair and you can still get your free £25 when you sign up.