Murray wins and stays dry under the roof in New York as rain batters Flushing Meadows
● Granollers and thunderous noise prove tricky but Scot reaches third round
ANDY MURRAY
booked his place in the third round of the US Open with a straight sets victory over Marcel Granollers of Spain.
Sometimes, it is best just to look on the bright side: it was raining in New York, but the centre court now has a roof. The noise under that roof is unbearable but at least Andy Murray and Marcel Granollers were playing. Murray was not playing particularly well, but he was winning.
In two hours and 22 minutes of hard graft, he managed to put Granollers away 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 and he is now safely settled into the third round of the US Open. The rest of the men in his half of the draw were kicking their heels in the locker room, waiting for the rain to stop and the outside courts to be dried but the world No 2 was on his way back to the city to rest and recover. That was a major plus point for a man with his eyes on a place at the sharp end of the tournament.
“I think I hit a lot of winners,” Murray said, picking out the positives, “and although the first serve percentage wasn’t great, I won a lot of points behind my second serve which was important. But I would have liked to have made a few more first serves.”
The $150 million roof did its job – it kept the tennis on course and the players dry – but it has one major design flaw: it acts like a drum skin across the world’s biggest sound box. When the heavens opened and pitched a monsoon across Flushing Meadows, the noise on court was deafening. The players always take their time to get used to the constant hum of conversation and the movement in the crowd around these parts but when that rain started, it was impossible to hear the sound of the ball on the racket strings.
It was also impossible to hear the mutterings of frustration by Murray. In his opening match, he had served well and, as he said, when he serves well, he plays well. But yesterday, he could not get the first, big delivery to hit its target and that made everything that much more difficult.
“At first you don’t know what was happening,” Murray said. “You don’t know if it’s just people coming in at the change of ends making the noise. I didn’t particularly realise it was raining outside. It’s tough, you couldn’t really hear the ball at all.”
At the start of the match, it was not an issue – Murray nipped to a comfortable 5-2 lead and had a set point in the next game as Granollers served to stay in the set. So far, so good. But then the Spaniard started to find his range from the back of the court and began to pull the world No 2 all over the court. Granollers was not going to lie down and Murray was having to work overtime to get his own way.
The last two games of that set took 23 minutes as Murray was broken – slowly – and then just about managed to break back. It had taken him seven set points to claim his lead but after 67 minutes he was ahead.
“It was tough,” Murray said. “Had it gone to 5-all then the pressure is on me having led 5-2 and had a bunch of set points. Thankfully I was able to get that 5-4 game and the momentum was back with me but he is a very tricky guy to play against; good hands up at the net so I was just glad to get through in three sets.”
The second set was more one-sided but come the third, Granollers was back to his infuriating and frustrating old ways. Murray was not being threatened but, equally, he could not find a way to put pressure on the Granollers serve. Eight games drifted by before, at last, the Scot was presented with the break: Granollers missed a couple of easy shots and with one final fluffed forehand, he gave Murray a 5-4 lead.
That was all Murray needed and a couple of minutes later he had served out for the match and an appointment with either Gilles Simon, the No 30 seed, or Paolo Lorenzi, the world No 40 from Italy, tomorrow.