After Andy Murray played his best tennis of the tournament to wipe Grigor Dimitrov off the court on Monday evening—for the loss of just five games—the No2 seed confessed to getting 12 hours sleep the night before.
“I’ve been sleeping great since I’ve been here. I don’t know why. Last night I slept for 12 hours straight. I never do that. I never sleep that long.”
Perhaps it was only a coincidence that he produced such blistering tennis the next day. But then again, Murray became a father for the first time after reaching the final of the Australian Open this year. And since his daughter’s birth, the Briton has put together arguably one of the best seasons of his career. True, he lost in the third rounds at Indian Wells and Miami, but he made the final in Madrid, won Rome and capped the clay season with a first-ever final finish at Roland Garros.
Since then, he was 26-1, with his unbroken Queen’s, Wimbledon and Rio title runs ended only in the Cincinnati final.
No wonder he has slept like a baby since he arrived in New York. And no wonder Dimitrov commented after his near whitewash:
“Andy is the best player right now for me, so he deserved the win today.”
Perhaps that was an intemperate comment in the gloomy trail of a demoralising loss. After all, Novak Djokovic’s lead in the rankings is, as it has been for over two years, substantial, for the defending champion here has won two Majors and five Masters titles this year already, 56-5 for the year.
And before any more could be made of Murray closing the gap on the No1 ranking, he had yet to negotiate a former US Open finalist, Kei Nishikori, just to join Djokovic in the semis.
First things first, then. An earlier start, on a hot Wednesday afternoon, may have meant fewer than 12 hours’ sleep, but Murray would be raring to go against a man he had beaten in seven of eight matches. Two of them had been this year, and while the first was an exhausting five-setter in the Davis Cup first round, that had been Murray’s first appearance on court after the arrival of his daughter.
Come August and the semi-finals at the Rio Olympics, and it was a different story, a 6-1, 6-4 win to the Briton.
And it looked in the early goings as though Murray would set his stamp on this match, even though he was slow off the mark in the opening game. Nishikori showed his hand immediately—he would be attacking at every opportunity—and went 0-40 for three break points. But Murray found some big serves to hold, went 2-1 with a love game, and broke the Japanese man in the fourth game. He held with a 132mph ace, and pounced on too many errors by Nishikori, including a double fault, to break again.
Murray served out the set, 6-1, in 35 minutes with another couple of 130+ serves, having made just one error in the set and almost twice as many points.
The second set would swing back and forth, now one dictating, now the other. Nishikori again began in style, coming to the net, then making a drop winner. It was all square to 2-2, before Murray grabbed a break as a few drops of rain fell.
It was not enough to stop play, but it did disrupt Murray, who promptly gave back the break to love. But now the rain fell again, and play stopped for the roof to close.
Around 20 minutes later, Nishikori served the one point required to hold, and then held to love for 5-4. He continued to play bravely, pulled off his 12th winning point at the net, and pounded to the set in a dazzling baseline rally to break, 6-4.
The third set began in the same vein, a break to each, all square until 3-3, then another break each side as Nishikori began to find some outstanding shots to counter some big serving from Murray. But the Briton broke again and served it out to love, 6-4, with over two hours on the clock.
He seemed to hold the momentum into the fourth set, had two break points in the third game, but was thrown completely by the umpire’s decision to replay a point after a loud boom. The tournament later explained this was from an audio processor unit that could not be taken off-line without interrupting play, but the damage had been done. Murray was so distracted that he argued with both umpire and referee after failing to make the break and then conceded his serve 1-3.
And so the set continued: Murray entirely distracted and making errors at every turn, Nishikori firing winners at will. Another break and a love hold and Nishikori had the set, 6-1.
The decider was as unpredictable as the rest. Nishikori burst from the gates with two stunning forehand winners to break, and held with his 22nd winning net point—making seven straight games.
Murray bellowed at himself to ‘fire up’, and did just that to level 2-2—only to see a flashing backhand winner down the line from Nishikori to break again.
For a brief purple patch, both played well together, before Nishikori handed the break back, and all at once, he was serving to stay in the match. And to his credit, he held to love, and deployed a killer drop shot and dive volley on his way to the key break. And aside from an edgy double fault, he finished as he had started, at the net, 6-4, after four hours.
He admitted afterwards that the short rain break had helped him reassess his tactics, but his aggressive play shone through from start to finish: 48 winners, 24 of them on the forehand, compared with 29 from Murray, with just seven on the forehand. Nishikori went to the net 39 times, Murray 25, but the key here was self-belief. Nishikori looked as though he may waver at the last, but this time he did not.
A despondent Murray was into press quickly but asserted: “I’m not disappointed in a way. Obviously I would have loved to have won, but I have had a good run every match. I would have loved to have gone further, but it wasn’t to be today.
“I have not let anyone down, certainly not myself. I tried my best, fought as hard as I could with what I had. I pushed myself as hard as I could over the last few months, and I’m very proud of how I have done. You know, if someone had offered me the summer that I have had before Wimbledon, I probably would have signed for that.”
Now Nishikori, will have to negotiate one of two Grand Slam champions, Stan Wawrinka or Juan Martin del Potro, if he is to reach the final. But if he goes on to win the title, he is in line for the biggest payout in tennis history. Because Nishikori headed the US Open Series Challenge, helped by his final run in Toronto, he could pick up a $1 million bonus, for a total of $3.5 million.
Right now, though, that is the last thing on his mind.