Since winning his maiden Grand Slam, and with it ending a 76 year wait for a British male winner of a Grand Slam in 2012, Andy Murray has not had a great relationship with Flushing Meadows.
After defeating Novak Djokovic over five epic sets to finally break his grand slam drought, getting the monkey off his back, Murray has failed to make the latter stages of the US Open.
Is the US Open turning into Andy Murray’s bogey slam
Olympic year 2012 saw Murray make the semi final of the Australian Open, the quarter final of the French Open, the final at Wimbledon, winning the Gold medal in London (and a silver in the mixed doubles), before reaching the final in New York.
Once the slam monkey was off his back, the next big event for Murray was to win his “home” slam of Wimbledon. 2013 saw another epic match against Djokovic, this time the Brit won in straight sets, although the length of the match could easily have been a five set match.
Unsurprisingly, at Flushing Meadows that same year, the Brits run ended earlier than he would have liked. The “come down” from making history and ending the British wait for a male champion at the All England Club after 77 years took its toll.
Surprisingly, though, was the manner of his exit. A straight set defeat to the Swiss number two (at the time) Stanislas Wawrinka was not expected.
At the end of 2013 Murray had surgery on his back and missed the end of the season. 2014 was a bit of a bad year for the Brit. As he struggled at the early part of the year to recover from the surgery, the Brit found his ranking dropping outside the top four.
By the time the US Open came round in 2014, Murray found himself a lower seed than he would have wanted, and faced his nemesis Djokovic once again, this time in the quarter finals.
In a four set match, Murray was unable to answer the Serbians skill, and despite winning a set, the Brit went on to lose the match, and once again fall short of the latter stages of the slam.
The following year 2015 saw the Brits worse place finish at the US Open since the high of 2012. Murray faced the big serving South African Kevin Anderson, and was unable to answer any of the questions posed by Anderson that day.
Added to the fact the Brit was playing the match on Louis Armstrong court, where he has traditionally had hard and difficult matches. It appeared that the curse of the Armstrong court struck again that day, as Murray lost in four sets.
The Brit did end 2015 with another “little” piece of history, as alongside his team mates, Great Britain won the Davis Cup. Another huge event in British Tennis, as it ended yet another long period waiting for the trophy.
In 2016, Murray had a very busy summer schedule. It involved a fifth title at Queens, a second Wimbledon crown (again, in straight sets, this time (and for the first time) against an opponent in their first Grand Slam final – Milos Raonic), a second Gold medal in Olympic singles.
The very exhausting and close match with Juan Martin Del Potro in Rio, clearly took its toll on the Brit who had given everything he had to win the second consecutive Gold medal in men’s singles, the first player to do so.
At Flushing Meadows, Murray once again failed to reach the final four. Once again falling at the quarter final stage. This time it was Kei Nishikori who stopped the run of the Brit.
The Australian Open was once considered to be the bogey slam of Murray, as he has reached the final on many occasions but has never won the event. The French Open was also a contender, but expectations were always low in Paris. Brits were always regarded as not very good on clay.
This all changed in 2016, when after proving that he can finally play on the surface – a couple of titles in 2015 and Rome in 2016, Murray made the final of the French Open for the very first time.
As Flushing Meadows now stands as the slam where the Brit has performed the worst in the last few years, is this now his bogey slam?
Can Murray win the US Open again, or will it now be his new French Open?
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