Murray’s incredible run halted in US Open final

Andy Murray’s runner-up finish at the US Open served as a fitting exclamation point to a superb season that saw him win three of his six career titles and climb to a career-best fourth in the ATP rankings.

Britain hails mighty Murray

“I have been getting consistently better,” Murray said. “My rankings been moving up steadily and this being my first big Grand Slam a lot of things have gotten much better.”

The 21-year old Scotsman competed in his first career Grand Slam final on Monday, losing 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 to Swiss star Roger Federer, who won the US Open title for the fifth consecutive year to capture his 13th Grand Slam crown.

Murray joins John Lloyd (1977 Australian Open) and Canadian-born Greg Rusedski (1997 US Open) as the only British players to reach a Grand Slam final in tennis’ modern era.

He burst onto the scene in 2008 with the most productive run of his career. Murray is hoping to one day become the first British man to capture a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry won the 1936 US Championships.

Federer and Nadal have dominated the Slam finals but this year’s US Open showed that rising stars like Murray and Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro are ready to compete with the big guns.

“I know that mentally and physically I can get to a Grand Slam now,” Murray said. “I hope this will be the start of big things for me but I am going to have to put a lot of work in.”

Murray reduced Del Potro to tears in winning an emotional and physically exhausting four-hour marathon in the quarter-finals. He survived a five-set match in the round of 16 by rallying from two sets down to beat Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.

In the semi-finals, he upset world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in a match that was played over two days because of the remnants of a tropical storm that passed over the New York area.

“It was my goal to win the tournament,” said Murray of Dunblane. “I played Del Potro and he hadn’t lost for however long. I played Nadal the No. 1 player in the world followed by Federer. Right now I am not really expected to win all of those matches.

“Even when I was playing Nadal and I was up a couple of sets and it went overnight. I didn’t get too excited about things and just stayed relaxed and that helped.”

Not only did Murray earned $US750,000 ($A919,500) as the runner-up but he collected a second check for $US250,000 ($A306,500) for finishing second in the US Open Series.

Asked what he planned to do with his first million dollar payday, Murray joked, “That’s about 10 pounds isn’t it.” He then turned serious.

“I would never have even thought. A million dollars is so much money for someone my age. That’s the biggest cheque that I’ve ever had by a long shot.

“Hopefully I will have a few more of them.”

Heading into Monday’s final, Murray had beaten Federer in two of their three previous meetings, including the final of the 2005 ATP Bangkok tournament.

“Each month I have been making improvements,” Murray said. “My results have got better. A lot of things have gotten much better but these are the tournaments that I think all tennis players really want to win.

“I didn’t do it tonight and I am going to have to work very hard to do it some day.”

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