Today it was closed for Andy Murray’s match against Spain’s Marcel Granollers and the heavens opened up.
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World number two Andy Murray made himself heard at the US Open on Thursday, downing tenacious Spaniard Marcel Granollers in straight sets to reach the third round.
“I got myself in a situation that maybe I could have avoided if I had taken one or two of the set points that I had at 5-2 or 5-3”, said Murray. Another tight exchange ensued before Murray finally found the breakthrough in the penultimate game, breaking his opponent again to set up the win.
Play has been suspended on the outer courts at the U.S. Open because of rain.
“So far, so good”, said Williams, who was cheered on by rap mogul Jay Z and his pop superstar wife Beyonce as she booked a meeting with 47th-ranked Swede Johanna Larsson for a place in the last 16.
Play on outer courts was, mind you, severely affected.
Fired-up fifth seed Simona Halep also advanced, downing Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-4 in a battle of former French Open finalists.
Murray is used to playing under a roof at a Grand Slam – his status as home favourite saw him finish his matches on time on Centre Court at Wimbledon, while rain played havoc with the rest of the schedule and his rivals, necessitating play on Middle Sunday for the first time since 2004.
“I want to make the most of every tournament I play and try to achieve as much as I can the next few years”.
Injury struggles of his peers increases his chances to secure his second Grand Slam of the year, but Murray knows it will not be an easy task.
When its shut, as was the case Wednesday because of showers that delayed play on all other courts for hours at a time, the roof amplifies all of that ambient noise.
The world number two was the latest player to voice concerns over a din made worse by the torrential rain battering the new Dollars 150 million roof.
The U.S. Tennis Association announced a multi-year partnership with Adidas on Thursday to make the German sportswear giant the official sponsor of USTA player development.
“The players will deal with it”.
Adidas is the sponsor of such stars as Ana Ivanovic and Angelique Kerber.
No. 6-seeded Venus Williams will take on Julia Goerges of Germany in the afternoon, followed by No. 1 Serena Williams against Vania King in an all-American matchup to start the night session.
Juan Martin del Potro, who has undergone four wrist surgeries since lifting the US Open trophy in 2009, continues his latest comeback bid with a second-round clash against 19th-seeded American Steve Johnson.
But Murray kept his head to move into the third round of the US Open.
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Murray routinely deflects questions about how different his personality is from Lendl’s – Murray an outwardly emotional player of occasionally poor body language, while Lendl was a stoic, remaining expressionless to the point of appearing robotic.
