Andy Murray crashes out of US Open

The US Open title defence of Andy Murray has ended in barely a whimper after the Scot was thrashed in straight sets by Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka overnight.

The defeat came as a surprise given Murray had an 8-5 record over his Swiss opponent, and was heavily favoured to move through to the semi-finals where Novak Djokovic, the man he beat to win last year’s title, would have likely awaited.

But it was Wawrinka who claimed two monumental victories – first at the US Open three years ago, which marked the last time Murray failed to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final, and at the Monte Carlo Masters this year.

In whatever way you see it, this has got to rank as one of Murray’s worst ever performances not just at Grand Slam level, but also in his professional tennis career.

For only the second time in his Grand Slam career the Scot could not force even a single break point as Wawrinka played the match of his life to send the defending champion crashing out two rounds short of the championship match.

It ends a streak of four consecutive Grand Slam finals for Murray, during which he won the US Open title last year and at Wimbledon two months ago, and also reached the final of the Australian Open back in January.

But worryingly, the loss caps off a dismal US Open series for Murray, who was only able to win seven matches across Montreal, Cincinnati and New York, and his chances of finishing the season in the top two, having played second fiddle to Novak Djokovic between May and August before Rafael Nadal overtook him on the eve of the US Open.

Just how Murray would handle entering a Grand Slam tournament as the defending champion for the first time was always going to be one of the most interesting stories entering the US Open.

Murray’s title defence did not get off to a good start, as mother nature and incompetent scheduling meant that he had to wait until the first Wednesday night to get started against France’s Michael Llodra.

Murray’s first match was an easy romp to a straight sets victory without even being challenged by the French veteran.

Then came a pair of two Mayers: Leonardo in round two, against whom Murray dropped the third set before going on to win in four, and against Florian in round three, where the Scot was forced through a tiebreak in the first set before ultimately prevailing in straight sets.

Denis Istomin was next. The Uzbek was coming off a five-set victory over Andreas Seppi and had threatened another upset when he took the first off Murray in a tiebreak. But then the Scot recovered to win in four sets and in the process reach his 11th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final.

There, he met a very determined Stanislas Wawrinka, who for the first time ever went deeper than Roger Federer at a Grand Slam tournament.

Wawrinka was simply too good for Murray, hitting winners at will and never facing a single break point on his serve.

So was it a case of Wawrinka playing well, or Murray playing poorly?

It could have been both, but the way Wawrinka played, he should surely now be the biggest threat to Novak Djokovic and any chances the Serb has of reaching a fourth consecutive final at Flushing Meadows.

So where to for now for Andy Murray?

Losing in the quarter-finals of the US Open means that he has dropped over 1,500 rankings points and his chances of finishing the season ranked second behind Djokovic have all but gone down the drain.

It’s very crucial that he picks himself up now for the remainder of the season, with the best result he will ever have to defend is at Shanghai, where he was a finalist last year.

Then comes the Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals, which will be held in London for the fifth year in a row.

Another question that must be asked is could Murray still be hungover from ending world sports’ greatest drought?

Becoming the first male British winner of Wimbledon since 1936 has allowed him to freely play tennis without ever having that big of a monkey on his back entering a major event.

Murray is now no longer living in the shadow of Fred Perry and past failures such as Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman. He is now officially the greatest British player of all time, although he has yet to win in Australia or France (or in the latter case, let alone on clay).

The final question that needs to be asked is whether Murray can win any more Grand Slam titles.

A Gold Medal, last year’s US Open and this year’s Wimbledon title will forever go down as the greatest milestones ever achieved by a British man in tennis.

In particular, winning Wimbledon last July banished the “one-slam wonder” tag that often gets applied to many players, such as Juan Martin del Potro, Gaston Gaudio and Petr Korda, among others.

Gaudio, in particular, was never a great player, although he did win the French Open in 2004 as an unseeded player and had to beat great players such as Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria to get there.

But after that glorious June day back in 2004, Gaudio never even reached another Grand Slam quarter-final. In fact, his title victory was the only ever time he had gone past the fourth round at a Grand Slam.

Murray now has two Grand Slams and an Olympic Gold Medal. The question will be, in the next few years, can he add to that tally, or will he remain stuck on two Grand Slams for the remainder of his career?

As for Wawrinka, he can now do Rafael Nadal by knocking off Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, and then lose to Nadal in the final; that would see the Spaniard knock Djokovic off top spot and re-inherit the world number one ranking.

NOTE: At the time of this article being written, Novak Djokovic had yet to play his quarter-final against Mikhail Youzhny. Wawrinka will meet the winner of this match.