Murray makes final; opponent unknown
NEW YORK — Dealing with 20 mph wind that blew a changeover chair onto the U.S. Open court on one point and yanked his hat off during another, Andy Murray navigated his way into his fifth Grand Slam final.
Now he’ll try to win his first Grand Slam title — and first for any British man in 76 years.
Adapting to the conditions far better than his opponent did, Olympic champion Murray came back to beat mistake-prone Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (7), in a rain-delayed and wind-swept U.S. Open semifinal Saturday.
“It was brutal,” Murray said about his 3-hour, 58-minute victory. “Hard to describe. You had to focus for every single point. … Some of the hardest conditions I’ve ever played in, for sure, and I come from Scotland, so that’s saying something.”
After the Murray-Berdych match, the tournament suspended play for the day while David Ferrer was leading Novak Djokovic, 5-2, in the first set of their semifinal.
That match was scheduled to resume today, with the men’s final shifted from its originally scheduled slot today to Monday. This year will be the fifth consecutive year the men’s final has been moved to Monday.
Earlier, the women’s final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka that was supposed to be played Saturday night was shifted to today.
The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that schedules two men’s semifinals Saturday. Next year, for the first time, a day off will be inserted between the semifinals and final, either by shifting the semis to Friday or by changing the title match to Monday.
This event is the first major since the 2004 French Open with neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Federer was beaten by Berdych in the quarterfinals, and Nadal did not enter the field, sidelined by a partially torn tendon in his left knee.
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have combined to win 29 of the past 30 major titles, a stretch that began at the 2005 French Open.
The third-seeded Murray will get yet another chance to put his name on that list. The last major singles trophies for a British man were won by Fred Perry at Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in 1936.
Murray is playing confidently after beating Federer to win a gold medal for Britain at the London Games in August, about a month after losing to Federer in the Wimbledon final.
The match began more than an hour late after heavy rain — and even a tornado warning. That all dissipated, but the wind remained.
At one point, with Berdych serving at 40-15, the automatic sensor that indicates a serve touched the net cord, requiring a let call, blared its loud signal — even though the ball didn’t make contact. Berdych complained, and chair umpire Pascal Maria, his tie waving this way and that, explained, “It beeped because of the wind.”
Minutes later, with Murray facing a break point in the fourth game, he raced forward to get to a short shot, and a combination of his momentum and the wind pulled his white baseball cap off his head as he made contact with the ball. At the other end, Berdych failed to get to Murray’s response, and Maria initially awarded the point to Murray, making the score deuce.
But Berdych argued that he was distracted by the flying hat and engaged the official in a bit of an argument. Murray approached and injected himself into the conversation, asking Berdych whether he was certain the hat affected the outcome of the point.
“I’m just asking if you’re 100 percent sure,” Murray repeated.
It was an act of sportsmanship, leading to Maria’s ruling that the point should be replayed. Murray tried to chip a lob that landed long, and Berdych got the point — and the break.
Murray hit a ball in anger, grabbed the troublesome hat and walked to dump it on the sideline, muttering “nonsense, nonsense, nonsense.”
The wind also added a booming soundtrack as it came in contact with Maria’s microphone, a loud noise that prompted this comment from seven-time major champion John McEnroe on the CBS broadcast: “I’m annoyed — and I’m not even playing.”