Andy Murray won 9 of 10 games to start and overwhelmed Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 at the U.S. Open on Monday night to reach the quarterfinals for the 22nd time in his past 23 Grand Slam tournaments.
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But Murray was imperious – hitting a career-best 141mph bullet to win the first set, while he allowed his opponent just four service holds.
“I’m aware I’ll need to do that again in a couple days if I want to beat him, because he’s one of the best players in the world”. “I think the other fastest serve I hit was here at the US Open, around 138”.
“I served a bunch in the low 130s, mid-130s, which was good”.
The 29-year-old broke early on again in the fourth set, in fact for the third set in succession Murray seized the advantage on the Italian’s serve in the opening game of the set.
“I’m very happy with how I played, I didn’t make many unforced errors and I made it very tough for him”.
After dropping a set in the third round to Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, Murray was at the top of his game, producing 28 winners, just 23 unforced errors, and hitting a personal-best 141 miles per hour serve. I enjoy it in here [on Arthur Ashe Court], fantastic atmosphere. “Tonight was the first time I have gone above 140”, the reigning Wimbledon and Olympic champion said.
He’s pretty good, so I expected a tough match.
“I have played well against him in the past but he likes these conditions”, said Murray.
At the Toronto Masters, he reached the last-eight, losing to Kei Nishikori. I didn’t expect to be in quarters in my second grand slam after my comeback.
The British number one had been out of sorts in the previous round, when he had to battle past Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi, and it seemed fatigue might finally be catching up with him at the last grand slam of the season.
Del Potro had won the first set 6-3 and was up a break in the second.
With just one game required, Murray still found time to argue with umpire Carlos Ramos at the changeover about spectators moving between points, while a brief rain shower passed overhead.
“I didn’t feel he played unbelievable tennis”, added Dimitrov, “but I felt I just did a lot of mistakes”.
When Vallverdu split with Murray and started working with Tomas Berdych, it caused tension which spilled over in wife Kim Murray’s X-rated outburst during the 2015 Australian Open semi-final.
“He’s obviously not played his best the last 18 months or so, but definitely the last few weeks has been playing very well, getting back to a level that he’s capable of playing at”.
He proceeded to win the next four games to regain control on the way to a 6-4 6-1 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 victory.
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Murray plays down the role he’s played in developing Edmund and Evans, insisting that they deserve all the credit for turning themselves into world class players.
