{"id":27363,"date":"2020-09-01T23:43:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T03:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=27363"},"modified":"2020-09-01T23:43:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T03:43:56","slug":"andy-murray-makes-epic-us-open-comeback-to-beat-nishioka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/09\/01\/andy-murray-makes-epic-us-open-comeback-to-beat-nishioka\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Murray makes epic US Open comeback to beat Nishioka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Murray recovered from two sets down to beat Yoshihito Nishioka in an epic five-set <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US Open<\/a> first round encounter.<\/p>\n<p>The 2012 champion prevailed 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in a four-hour, 39-minute contest on Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>It was Murray&#8217;s first Grand Slam singles outing since his five-set loss to Roberto Bautista Agut in the 2019 Australian Open first round.<\/p>\n<p>His last major win was a four-set opening round triumph over James Duckworth at the 2018 US Open.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Match summary<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>In the first set, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/yoshihito-nishioka\/n732\/overview\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nishioka<\/a> broke for 4-3 after saving two break points to hold for 2-2.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese left-hander closed out the opener and carried his momentum into the second &#8211; racing to a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1270093326\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 68.181816% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1270093326?et=fWlZ9YH3QYhISjIUWg8rFg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=Yogb3ynvEmqoUrvvUil_n721n3nOPbGNGA9Hl3YVXMA=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"405\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/andy-murray\/mc10\/overview\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Murray\u00a0<\/a>fought back and recovered a break, but could not prevent Nishioka from taking a 2-0 sets lead.<\/p>\n<p>The three-time Grand Slam champion then lost his serve in the opening game of the third set on a double fault &#8211; though hawk-eye showed his second serve was in.<\/p>\n<p>While Murray can never be written off, he looked down and out at 1-3 as he struggled in all areas of his game, while his opponent was unwavering.<\/p>\n<p>Murray had been unable to settle on a strategy to employ against Nishioka &#8211; who possesses a mix of great court coverage, a powerful forehand and an effective, consistent serve.<\/p>\n<p>The world #115 responded, though, as he broke back for 3-3.<\/p>\n<p>Murray then saved three break points on his way to forcing a tiebreak &#8211; which he claimed 7-5.<\/p>\n<p>He carried his raised level into the fourth set and displayed more resilience to reach 5-6 &#8211; saving four break points en route.<\/p>\n<p>Nishioka, however, lost just four points on serve and reached match point at advantage on Murray&#8217;s serve.<\/p>\n<p>The Brit saved it with an unreturnable first serve and made it to another tiebreak &#8211; which he took 7-4.<\/p>\n<p>Nishioka took control again in the fifth set, breaking for 3-2 after a Murray double fault.<\/p>\n<p>The world #49 had not faced a break point in his last 11 service games, but Murray broke him to 15 in the next game for 3-3.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1270092444\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 68.013466% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1270092444?et=HSGqOB6bRyxKQf15ZccLEA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=dVySdHsbGr5TcAbKEPOMhi4digz22PjMQpby0zVI92Q=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"404\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then, after three holds, Murray earned a match point of his own with Nishioka serving at 4-5, 40-40 &#8211; by firing a brilliant backhand cross-court winner.<\/p>\n<p>The Brit completed a monumental comeback when Nishioka sent a stretching backhand overhead long after Murray&#8217;s forehand topspin lob.<\/p>\n<p>Landing more first serves &#8211; and dictating points straight after his serve with aggressive forehands &#8211; were crucial to Murray&#8217;s revival.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What next?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Murray will face Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round after the world #21 edged past Thiago Monteiro in four sets.<\/p>\n<p>It will be Murray&#8217;s first meeting with the 20-year-old Canadian and should be an intriguing contest if he can recover well physically.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1270125785\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1270125785?et=vDtCBZJFT6dNHnxBMDMKGQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=Cla4MQ4nmAY_uupdhnwy0TyNNclUjSEz7MCzlFu8wmE=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andy Murray recovered from two sets down to beat Yoshihito Nishioka in an epic five-set US Open first round encounter. The 2012 champion prevailed 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in a four-hour, 39-minute contest on Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was Murray&#8217;s first Grand Slam singles outing since his five-set loss to Roberto Bautista [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3530,"featured_media":27425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2,9,11519],"tags":[10010,16,3276,12044,1826,3189,8295,12045,48,43,3661,11931,835],"class_list":["post-27363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-open","category-featured","category-news","category-tennis","tag-2020-us-open","tag-andy-murray","tag-andy-murray-us-open","tag-arthur-ashe","tag-arthur-ashe-stadium","tag-murray","tag-murray-us-open","tag-nishioka","tag-tennis","tag-us-open","tag-us-open-day-2","tag-us-open-first-round","tag-yoshihito-nishioka"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3530"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}