Murray was favourite to claim his fourth Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows, but was beaten 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 by Kei Nishikori of Japan in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
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Defeat for Murray ends the world number two’s hopes of becoming only the fourth man since the Open Era began in 1968 to make all four major finals in the same year.
It looked initially like it was going to be a Murray rout, as he breezed through the first set, but there was a 30-minute delay during the second set when the retractable roof was closed. This is the second loss in his last 27 games played. Between the changeover Murray complained to the tournament supervisor and when play resumed he never won another game in the set.
Well, I mean, I tried to stay calm and I try not to do too many up and downs, especially my mental side.
“There are always quirky things that can happen to halt play and obviously that was a really unfortunate incident for Andy, because he did have the momentum at two sets to one”, said Cowan. He faces No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka, who ended the resurgent run of 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a quarterfinal that finished past 1 a.m. on Thursday. “I fought as hard as I could with what I had today”, he said.
Halep staved off all 12 break points held by Williams in the second set and forced a third.
Murray lost the re-played point to lose the game and his serve – and then lost the next four games in a row to see the fourth set slip away 6-1.
He promises to be a unsafe opponent for Wawrinka, a two-time semi-finalist who saved a match point en route to a third-round victory over Britain’s Dan Evans before battling to a hard-fought four-set victory over Ukrainian Illya Marchenko in the round of 16. Or perhaps it was the toll of the grueling three-set quarterfinal against Simona Halep that concluded less than 22 hours before the semifinal started.
Right at the start of the third set, Halep held two break points at 15-40, but Williams came through to lead 1-0.
“I could have won the match, for sure”, said the No.2 seed and 2012 champion.
Murray’s dominance of the opening set faded in the second and, although he made the first break, Nishikori immediately pegged him back in a pattern that would later become a recurring theme.
It has often been said the Open can resemble a Gong Show with the insane night matches, the sound and noise all over the grounds. “I was just curious as to why that was, and that was it”. Against Tsonga at Wimbledon I was up, but that could have gone the other way in the beginning of the fifth.
Instead, Williams converted the only break chance she would get – or need – in the deciding set to go ahead 3-1, and was on her way.
“To be honest, I don’t care at what time it came”. At 5-5, when he needed to stay in the game the most, Murray double-faulted again – his second in the set and third overall – and Nishikori grabbed the chance to go up 6-5.
Nishikori opts for an attacking brand of tennis that Roger Federer, for one, enjoys watching and particularly in the final two sets he did the majority of dictating from the baseline.
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Murray, who so often fails to find the way to win, failed to do so this time. “I don’t think that had an impact on the match today”.
