Felix Auger-Aliassime Ends Andy Murray’s US Open with a Straight Sets Win
(September 3, 2020) On Tuesday Andy Murray stayed on the court for close to five hours, coming back from two sets down to win his first round match. There would be no comebacks for the former No. 1 and three-time major champion on Thursday night as 20-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada knocked out the Scot 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the third round at the US Open.
The young Canadian hit 52 winners, including 24 aces and did not even face a break point on his serve.
“He kind of played how I expected,” Murray said. “He’s a big guy. He takes the ball on. There’s obviously fairly quick conditions here, as well. I expected him to play that way.
“And yeah, he maybe served a little bit better tonight than he had in the last couple of weeks, you know, which helped. Because he obviously got quite a lot of free points with the first serve, and then even when I was getting a racquet on it, you know, he was able to dictate off the first shot of the rally, as well.”
“Everything came well together tonight,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I can be happy about just my overall performance. Everything was working well. I think, you know, I had a good percentage of winning points when I came into the net also. I had good overheads. So, yeah, it was very complete from the beginning to the end.
“But I can be happy for today. That doesn’t guarantee anything for the rest of the tournament, so I’ve got to keep on doing these things I was doing well.”
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to say that he was at his peak tonight. I know. I have seen Andy play. I could see it was in his emotions and what he felt that it wasn’t his greatest night.
“Obviously me playing well was obviously probably even tougher for him. But I still felt like when he needed to he could play well. You know, he would come up with good shots, good serve. You could still feel his touch is really good. He doesn’t miss too much backhands.
“But I know in his peak he would be even more solid. But even though he wasn’t his best tonight, I still felt and I understood why he was a great champion with the way he was able to make you earn every point and, you know, you needed to play well to win a match like today.”
:I need to build up my body and my physical conditioning so that, you know, I have the ability to back up five-set matches, ” Murray said.
As for future plans, Murray said in regard to the clay season: “The plan was to just play the French Open. You know, I haven’t played a match on clay since 2017, you know, which is a very long time.
“So, you know, it would be unfair on my body, I think, to maybe try. And certainly playing in Rome would be too soon because I will need to take a little break after getting back from here, as well, because it’s been quite an intense little stretch in comparison to what I have had the last ten months or so.
“And then, yeah, I mean, I think it would be beneficial for me to have time to sort of build up my load on the clay before competing on it. So as of right now, my plan would be just to play the French Open, but, I mean, I guess that could change, but I certainly won’t be playing in Rome.”
The Canadian will play the winner of the match between Corentin Moutet and Dan Evans who had their match suspended due to rain on the outer courts.
Related Articles:
Andy Murray Saves Match Point to Win in Five Sets at US Open
Serena Williams Sails into Third Round of US Open, Sabalenka, Konta, Muguruza Lose
