So, in the last grand slam of the year Andy Murray is trying to get back to his best. Having not been in a final of any tournament since that historic Wimbledon 2013, and having undergone back surgery at the end of last year Andy has spent this year struggling to regain that form (not helped by the split from the coach that got him to his 2 slam titles earlier this year). How has his first week at Flushing Meadows gone?
In his first round match against Robin Haase, he raced out to a 2 set lead and it seemed that the "Armstrong" curse would be broken. Louis Armstrong is a court that Andy has always struggled on in previous years, and he admits that it is not his favourite court. After being a clear 2 sets ahead, Andy suddenly was in pain, no-one was sure why although he did not call for the trainer. He was barely able to move at times and soon lost the 3rd set, to the score of 1-6 (something that he had not suffered for a while). It seemed that either Andy would retire from the match or this would be going to 5 sets as Robin made a great start to set 4 and was up a break. Having called the trainer himself Robin also appeared injured and neither player was at their best. Andy dug deep and at times he was playing on one leg, he pulled the score back level and then went ahead. He claimed the match in 4 sets. Afterwards, he revealed that his problem was not an injury per-say, which is why he did not call for the trainer, but was cramp. He was not even sure why it had struck as his preparations had been almost the same, the weather was humid so it could have been that (other players also retired citing cramping as their reason, this makes this win all the more remarkable for Andy).
For his second round match Andy was back on his favourite court Arthur Ashe and was playing German qualifier Matthias Bachinger who had taken out Radek Stepanek in the first round. Andy had never played Matthias before so needed to do his research by watching some of his first round match. Andy said he was fully recovered from the cramping issue and he also did not play this match until Thursday, giving him an extra day off. Being back on his favourite court and feeling no effects from the trials of Monday, Andy showed his experience and won this match in straight sets without much trouble.
Onto round 3 and his final match of week one. Andy would be playing daytime again, and back on Armstrong so his fans got ready for a rough ride, his opponent was Andrey Kuznetsov. Andy dominated the first set, winning it 6-1. In the second set, there were plenty of breaks of serve and the match was tense at 5-5 with a tiebreak in the offing. Andy managed to break Andrey to then be serving for a 2 set lead. Holding his nerve he successfully did this. The curse of the court kicked in however during the third set as Andy dropped this set 4-6. In the fourth set Andy stepped up again and was playing some amazing shots, although broken once, he held on and broke back to restore the double break, and would be serving for the match. With a sublime reflex volley he took the set and ultimately the match.
His opponent in the next round is Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and this will be a real test for Andy, although leading the head to head Jo won their last and most recent encounter.