Murray’s match was put under the $150m roof in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but a combination of echoing chatter and torrential rain outside still made conditions a challenge.
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Most importantly, he said, the thwack of a ball coming off his opponent’s racket strings – or his own, for that matter – was completely indiscernible during a 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 second-round victory over Marcel Granollers at the U.S. Open on Thursday.
I don’t know, with the new court, even if the roof is open, there is more noise out there.
“It was tough, you couldn’t really hear the ball which makes it tricky”. “It helps us pick up the speed of the ball, the spin that’s on the ball, how hard someone’s hitting it”.
The 30-year-old held until the ninth game, when an unforced error gifted Murray an opportunity to serve for the match, an unreturnable serve out wide securing his passage to the next round, where he will face Gilles Simon or Paolo Lorenzi. 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. “But, I thought I did pretty well”.
The $150 million retractable roof made its competition debut Wednesday night during Rafael Nadal’s win over Andreas Seppi, then was closed for the beginning of Thursday’s day session to allow fifth-seeded Simona Halep’s match against Lucie Safarova to start on time.
“There is more noise with the roof, but, I mean, if it’s not raining, it’s OK”.
Williams is chasing a seventh US Open title and 23rd Grand Slam crown – both of which would be Open Era records. It’s something I need to adjust to when I’m on here again, at the start it was quite hard’. The No.2 seed earned a further FOUR set points against Granollers serve in a game that stretched to seven deuces, before finally putting one of them away to take it 6-4 after 67 minutes.
“It was tough, having led 5-2 and had a bunch of set points, but thankfully I got through”. “In tennis, normally you are used to playing with silence”.
Whether or not it was that, Murray was unusually uptight in the first set against a player he has known since his teenage days of training in Barcelona.
The Spaniard actually broke back, however, showing plenty of guts and taking advantage of some distinctly average serving from the 2012 US Open champion.
Men’s third seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, a two-time semi-finalist, reached the second round with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, 6-4 win over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. This time, because of earlier weather suspensions, there was still action on other courts as midnight approached.
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Even if it does flare up, Williams has to be considered a strong favorite against her 87th-ranked compatriot King, a wild card she trounced 6-1, 6-0 in their only prior meeting, in the second round of the 2014 US Open.
