Andy Murray ‘playing best tennis in years’ as he launches contemporary assault on US Open
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s Andy Murray seems to proceed his stand up the rankings, he says his first-round win over Corentin Moutet on the US Open was a step in the fitting course.
Murray was at his combative finest final evening as he held off world No72 Moutet to claim his 200th win in Grand Slams, placing him ninth within the all-time checklist.
Moutet pushed the Scot exhausting and had two set factors within the second set earlier than Murray rallied to clinch a 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 win in slightly below three hours.
“I’m at my highest ranking since I had the metal hip put in,” mentioned the world No37, who now performs No19 seed Grigor Dimitrov.
“I’m happy with that. It’s not been an easy journey. I’d like to be ranked higher but this is the best I’ve played consistently since 2017. I’m happy to still be going, still progressing and I hope that I can keep pushing my ranking up.”
Three hours is on the brief aspect for a Grand Slam match for Murray in 2023, having gone the space twice in Australia in January. As the gamers shook arms, he advised Moutet: “You’re an amazing player.” At 36, Murray felt he did nicely in tough, humid situations.
“Difficult match against a very skilful opponent, a very different game style to pretty much all of the guys on the tour now,” he mentioned. “There were a lot of long points and tricky moments out there, a lot of stuff going on out there on the court. I did well to get it done in three sets.”
The three-time Grand Slam champion confirmed no indicators of the stomach pressure that compelled him out of Cincinnati lower than two weeks in the past.
The Grand Slam 200 Club
Roger Federer 369 wins
Novak Djokovic 354
Rafael Nadal 314
Jimmy Connors 233
Andre Agassi 224
Ivan Lendl 222
Roy Emerson 210
Pete Sampras 203
Andy Murray 200
Serving strongly, shifting brilliantly and taking part in aggressive tennis, Murray cruised by means of the primary set however needed to dig deep within the second as Moutet hit again.
But as soon as he had damaged again for 5-5 within the second set — and as soon as Moutet had smashed his racket — the match was successfully over.The solely tough second got here proper on the finish when VAR, being utilized in tennis for the primary time at this 12 months’s occasion, was known as upon, and duly failed.
Serving for the match at 5-4, 15-30, Murray was awarded the purpose as a result of Moutet had not obtained to the ball on the primary bounce, however the Frenchman challenged it.
But whereas the replay was proven on the massive display contained in the stadium, confirming it was a double bounce, the footage was not despatched to the umpire.
Since officers usually are not allowed to make use of easy TV replays, the umpire mentioned: “Unfortunately, VAR is not working, call stands.” Murray served out for victory however was left perplexed.
“I don’t know exactly how it’s supposed to work and who’s supposed to make the decision on it, because it was quite clear from the second video that the ball had bounced twice,” mentioned Murray. “We watched it about 10 times. It clearly is not the umpire that’s making that decision.
“It obviously didn’t go to plan in a pretty important moment of the match. It would be good if they could get that fixed.”