If a set of tennis can be described as flawless, that which Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares inflicted on Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the first 41 minutes of their semi-final win on day 11 of the 2016 US Open is surely a candidate.
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Murray was beaming from ear to ear afterwards as he compared his own career to Andy’s: ‘I’m starting to move out the shadows a little bit but there’s still a long way to go, ‘ he said. “But there’s a long way to go”.
It will be Murray’s fourth grand-slam doubles event final in 18 months after the Scot was a runner-up at both Flushing Meadows and Wimbledon previous year.
“I was really trying to (stay) in the moment”, Kerber said, “trying to play my game, being aggressive”.
The Frenchman, something of a father-and-son pairing between old hand, 34-year-old Mahut and 26-year-old Herbert, clicked right from the start to reach the final of the their first Grand Slam in Australia last year. “I hope that it will continue”.
“But yeah, [when] you kind of take a moment and look at it, it is unbelievable what we have been able to do from a country of no history of tennis at all”. When you’re injured you’re thinking of other things when you should be just playing and thinking of your shots.
“He couldn’t win this but I did”.
It was a sweltering afternoon on Arthur Ashe but the efficiency in Murray and Soares’ work made it look easy at times. “But I think that’s also her strength”.
Soares commented: “I’m very proud, they’re a very tough team”. “Yeah, get it up you Andy”. It was a huge event for us and he thought that we deserved better.
“I think we just did a really solid job”.
As she does against most opponents, Kerber would make Pliskova swing two, three, four extra times to try to end a point.
“Before this tournament we were pretty far behind, even though we are number three”, Murray said.
“And for us to come here again and to win a Grand Slam, you know, is an awesome feeling”.
“We’ve been able to do a lot of incredible things in our lives on a tennis court”, said Jamie.
The dominant pair raced away to a love-40 lead before serving it out for their second Grand Slam of the year following their win at the Australian Open in January.
The players had to get to grips with another hot, humid afternoon at Flushing Meadows – and with their first appearance in the world’s biggest tennis stadium this year.
Unusual scheduling of the men’s final – four hours behind that of the women’s singles final – meant that the vast Arthur Ashe Stadium was sparseky populated at the start, as to be expected.
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“It didn’t look good”, Beltz said about the deficit.
