Andy Murray may count himself one of the lucky few on first Thursday at Flushing Meadows, for this was the day that the rains came.
As No2 seed and former US Open champion, Murray had a slot in the schedule centre stage on Arthur Ashe, and that meant he benefitted from the much-heralded new roof that has been thrown, at great cost and after numerous rain-delayed finals here, over the vast arena.
The roof is, no question, an engineering achievement on some scale, for the original court structure, the largest in tennis, could not take the weight of the roof itself. A separate, free-standing roof had to be created.
What’s more, it could close in just a few minutes, though by the time Murray arrived with his No45 ranked opponent Marcel Granollers of Spain, it had been closed for the duration of the preceding women’s match. With more heavy showers forecast, the roof stayed shut.
On paper this was a walk in the park for a man who is many pundits’ favourite for the title this year, for Murray’s record spoke volumes about his form.
He was on a 23-1 winning streak since losing in the final of Roland Garros—incidentally the first British man to be runner-up in Paris.
He was 51-7 for the year, 21-4 on hard courts, with four titles from eight finals, all of them except the high-quality 500 at Queen’s being at Major, Master or Olympic level.
And if he could make at least the final here, he would become only the fourth man in the Open era to reach all four Major finals in a calendar year—putting him in the prestigious company of Rod Laver, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
He had played Granollers seven times before, and only once had the Spanish clay-court specialist won, and that was on Rome’s red courts—and after Murray was forced to retire with a back injury. He would have surgery on that back later in 2013, and had no trouble in beating the Spaniard on clay the next year in Rome and last year in Madrid.
But these were hard courts, and not just any hard courts. The US 2012 champion, and junior champion 2004, had won 41 out of 51 matches here and had not fallen short of the quarters since 2010.
However, Murray would have more than just Granollers to contend with. Comments were beginning to surface about the noise inside the new Ashe arena with its substantial overhanging roof structure. This is a lively, noisy place at the best of times, full of energy. But all that bustle and hum reverberated and echoed around the rafters, even with the roof open.
Murray can be easily distracted, and he was, by the coming and going of spectators and by the noise. He took a while to settle, could not find the groove with his first serve, and the first set would extend through long points, long games, breaks and counter-breaks.
Murray took a 3-0 lead, but Granollers gradually worked himself into the set, fending off a break point in the fourth game, with the match already 24 minutes. old.
The Spaniard began to show his proficient doubles skills with some drops shots, the occasional lob and flat baseline hitting. Serving at 2-5, he came under huge pressure from Murray through another break point to hold for 3-5.
The next game would be a marathon, with Murray showing all his grit and defensive skill to try and prevent the break back. Granollers was chasing into the net when he could, forcing errors, and he raced back to pick up a Murray lob to bring up a fifth deuce. At the fourth chance, Granollers drew the key error and broke for 4-5.
But now it was the Spaniard’s turn to fight off the assault from Murray that involved seven deuces, four break points, and a 16th point won at the net. Granollers even serve-and-volleyed, but Murray’s signature running forehand cross-court winner broke through for the break, 6-4.
The set had lasted 70 minutes, but those last two gladiatorial games had taken 23 of them.
However, now both would have to content with a third party, not just noise from the crowd but thundering noise from outside as the heavens opened and battered the Ashe roof. It was, quite simply, deafening.
Not only was it impossible, for a couple of games, to hear the strike of the ball but even the line-calls. The players had no choice but to continue, and Murray admitted afterwards he was baffled by the noise.
“At first you don’t know what was happening, if people are just coming in at the change of ends… I didn’t particularly realise it was raining outside. It’s tough. You couldn’t really hear the ball at all. But we’re lucky to get to play under the roof, because we are playing tennis right now.”
The third game of the second set was a fractious one of missed line calls, appeals, the concession of a point by Murray, and two break chances against the Briton. But he held, and with his focus now back, Murray broke, and made a stunning chase for a winning pick-up for 4-1. Another break and a hold, and he sealed the set in a more comfortable 35 minutes.
Murray now seemed in control, though to Granollers’ credit, he did not give up the effort through more long, taxing rallies. Murray, serving second, began to look the stronger and cut down his errors to just five for the set. With a break in the ninth game, the set was over bar some cracking serves from Murray to hold for 6-4, after a tougher 2hrs 22mins than many may have expected.
Murray afterwards admitted that the last two games of the first set had been crucial.
“It was tough. Had it gone to 5-5 then the pressure was on me, having led 5-2 and had a bunch of set points. Thankfully I was able to get that 5-4 game and the momentum was back with me, but he is a very tricky guy to play against—good hands up at the net. So I was just glad to get through in three sets.”
He was lucky, too, to get his match done on time, even under the considerable challenge of such an ebb and flow in noise. By 4pm, just eight other matches had been fitted into the short window of dry weather, and one of those was Simona Halep’s win over Lucie Safarova before Murray began.
Eleven matches were cancelled by the time court-drying got under way—all doubles—in the hope that there would be no more hold-ups. Among those still to come was the battle to decide Murray’s Round 3 opponent, Gilles Simon or Paolo Lorenzi.
Elsewhere in his quarter, Nicolas Mahut beat Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets, a noteworthy win because it was the 34-year-old’s first third-round singles run at the US Open, where he is defending doubles champion with Pierre-Hugues Herbert.