Andy Murray had not beaten a top 10 ranked player since Wimbledon 2013 as he walked onto Arthur Ashe stadium court to face Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in round 4 of US Open at Flushing Meadows.  This match was a make or break for Andy and his season, win and he would be guaranteed to remain in the top 10, lose and he would drop out of it.

This was going to be a tough match as both players needed different things to emerge from it.  For Andy it was obvious, he needed a top 10 win to boost his confidence and to make it to the quarter finals of his 15th consecutive grand slam.  For Jo he would be looking to make the head to head record 9-3 to Andy and also to end the record the Brit has against French players at slams (he has won the last 22 encounters with French players).

Not only were they on Ashe but being Labour Day in America, meant that this was the "star" match on the schedule, and fortunately for those in Britain the start time of 3pm (depending on the 2 matches before them) was good for those wanting to look live.

Andy came out looking like he wanted this, and the first set stayed on serve with Andy pressuring on Jo's serve making it a struggle for the Frenchman to hold.  By contrast the Briton was holding easily for much of the first set.  As it reached 5-5 it seemed like a tiebreak was in the offing, but Andy broke and the set was settled 7-5 in the Brits favour.

Into the second set, and it seemed at first that Andy was having another dip in his form, as he was broken early and was soon down 2-0.  However, it wasn't long before he had pulled this back to 4-4 and then 5-5, was a repeat of the first set possible?  Yes, it was Andy broke again to take the second set 7-5.  He was now one set away from his biggest win since July 2013.

The third set started much the same way as the 2nd with Jo taking the early lead again, Andy soon found himself down 2-0 again.  Once more he managed to bring the score back level to 4-4 and then 5-4, meaning that Jo would be serving to stay in the match.  Andy had played some sublime points upto this point, and his confidence appeared to be growing as Jo was faltering.  Andy had 3 match points on the Frenchman's serve and he converted one of these as Jo hit a forehand long!. 

So, with his first top 10 win and the score of 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 Andy will now face Novak Djokovic at the Quarter Final stage