Injury forces Murray US Open withdrawal

ANDY MURRAY last night announced he has had to pull out of the US Open due to his hip injury.

Friday’s draw had paired Murray with the splendidly-named American Tennys Sandgren.

While Diego Schwartzman, Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could be dangerous, Murray at 100% would certainly have fancied his chances to get past all of them.

The Scot was on the other side of the draw to both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, meaning his seeded opponent in the semi-finals would have been German wunderkind Alexander Zverev, who is yet to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.

However, serious doubt remained over the Scot’s troublesome hip and that was confirmed with his withdrawal.

In the women’s draw, seventh seed Johanna Konta will begin her campaign against Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic but things get tougher fairly quickly for the 26-year-old, who is in the same half as Simona Halep and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.

Among the other British players, Heather Watson faces Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.

Kyle Edmund, hot off reaching the semi-finals at the WinstonSalem Open, takes on 32nd seed Robin Haase. Aljaz Bedene faces young Russian Andrey Rublev and qualifier Cameron Norrie meets veteran Dmitry Tursunov – ranked 642 and playing under a protected ranking.