Andy Murray v Kevin Anderson
Andy Murray’s US Open campaign ended last night with big-serving Kevin Anderson coming out on top of a marathon four-hour tussle.
The towering South African described his 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(0) victory in the Louis Armstrong Stadium as ‘one of the best matches of my career’ as he reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
British No.1, Murray, took to the court for the fourth round clash in extremely hot and humid New York conditions.
And 6ft 8in Anderson, who lost to Murray in the finals of the Aegon Championships this year, took the opening two sets with his lightning serve hitting its target more often than not.
The world No.3 fought hard to produce another thrilling five-set comeback similar to his Round 2 match against Adrian Mannarino and clinched the tense third set.
In-form Anderson, the No.14 seed, wasn’t going to let the lead slip though and dominated the fourth set breaker to complete the victory in four hours and 16 minutes.
Murray said: “It was a tough match. The court is a lot quicker than Ashe [stadium] and I felt like I was on the back foot quite a lot and wasn’t able to play that offensively but when you are playing against someone who has the game style he does you are always going to have to do a fair bit of defending when he serves well.
“I felt like I had my opportunities but didn’t manger to capitalise on them and when you are playing someone as good as him it is tough.”
Johanna Konta v Petra Kvitova
Johanna Konta’s memorable US Open campaign and 16 match unbeaten run came to an end at the hands of double Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova.
On the biggest tennis stadium anywhere in the world the British No.2 battled hard against her in-form Czech opponent but went down 7-5, 6-3.
Konta hadn’t lost a match since her Centre Court outing against Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon and had picked up two big titles in Canada prior to announcing herself as a threat on the major stage in New York.
Despite playing in the biggest match of her career to date and in unknown territory in the second week of a Grand Slam, Konta settled quickly and held her first five service games.
But Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, got the decisive break in the final game of the set to take the advantage before winning three games in a row at the back end of the second to progress into the quarter-finals.
Konta, who will see her world ranking break the top 60, said: “I actually settled quite quickly and enjoyed being out there. I guess I had a little childhood dream come true, so that's pretty special.
"I'm not blown away by my performance here. I'm just satisfied that I get a little bit of candy for doing well. I'm just really looking forward to heading already to my next tournament.”
Juniors
- T.Andrianjafitrimo (FRA) beat Katie Swan (GBR) 7-6(5), 3-0
- Maia Lumsden (GBR) beat Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) [6] 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
- Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) beat Ingrid Neel (USA) 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2
- Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) & Emilie Francati (DEN) beat Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN) & Wushuang 6-3, 6-3