For most seeded players in the United States Open, the opening matches are a chance to work out a few wrinkles, shake off some rust and become used to the swirling winds, the warm conditions and the speed of the courts.
But Monday many high seeds and big names instead fended off calamity in a stream of matches that turned out more adventurous than expected.
At the head of that list was Andy Murray, who took a two-sets-to-none lead over Robin Haase of the Netherlands, only to find himself fighting relentless muscle cramps in his legs and back. Murray, seeded eighth and two years removed from winning his first Grand Slam title here, began grabbing various muscles in the third set. He paced in front of his chair instead of sitting during changeovers and did everything he could to keep himself in the match.
He finally won, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 1-6, 7-5, as Haase seemed in nearly as much discomfort as Murray, although he was less demonstrative about it.
“There were parts of that match that weren’t particularly pretty to watch, but I’m just happy to get through,” said Murray, who has had a tough season battling back from back surgery and has not won a tournament in more than a year. The unlikely trouble hardly stopped at Murray’s match. No. 2 seed Simona Halep found herself fighting off a challenge from an American college sophomore. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seeded ninth and playing great tennis on hardcourts leading up to the U.S. Open, dropped a set and needed a tiebreaker to win another in a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over Juan Mónaco.
Venus Williams, 34, seeded 19th but playing one of the few touring players older than she is — Kimiko Date-Krumm, 43 — started out by spraying errors all over the court before rallying to win, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
That victory required Williams to overcome 36 unforced errors, 19 of them in the first set. In the third set, both players were hounded by bees, enough that Williams called for help. The trespassing bee was then ushered away by a ball boy and ball girl armed with towels.
Asked what was more troublesome, the bee or Date-Krumm, Williams laughed: “That’s a tough question. The bee was annoying, but Kimiko was tougher. She hits the ball like no one else on tour.”
No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny discovered the chaotic theme of the day the hard way, losing in four sets, 7-5, 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(1), to Nick Kyrgios, a 19-year-old Australian. But even though the 60th-ranked Kyrgios is unseeded at the Open, he is not an unknown quantity, having knocked Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon. Kyrgios takes full advantage of the energy of youth, relentlessly pushing the pace of the match.
Kyrgios snatched the first two sets before wobbling. He became so frustrated he earned three code violations, one for hitting a ball nearly out of Court 17.
“It just comes from having high expectations most of the time,” said Kyrgios, who would have defaulted the match with one more code violation. “I have been an emotional player most of my career. Maybe I will be able to manage it in the future.”
When Youzhny looked as if he might send the match to a fifth set, Kyrgios came back from a breakdown in the fourth to grab victory in a tiebreaker.
“I was struggling a little bit about that two-and-a-half-hour mark, but I knew that if I hung in I would get that second wind where I could start playing good tennis again,” Kyrgios said.
The same could be said for Halep, who seemed to be on the verge of coming unglued in the first set of her 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-2 victory over Danielle Rose Collins.
But Monday many high seeds and big names instead fended off calamity in a stream of matches that turned out more adventurous than expected.
At the head of that list was Andy Murray, who took a two-sets-to-none lead over Robin Haase of the Netherlands, only to find himself fighting relentless muscle cramps in his legs and back. Murray, seeded eighth and two years removed from winning his first Grand Slam title here, began grabbing various muscles in the third set. He paced in front of his chair instead of sitting during changeovers and did everything he could to keep himself in the match.
He finally won, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 1-6, 7-5, as Haase seemed in nearly as much discomfort as Murray, although he was less demonstrative about it.
“There were parts of that match that weren’t particularly pretty to watch, but I’m just happy to get through,” said Murray, who has had a tough season battling back from back surgery and has not won a tournament in more than a year. The unlikely trouble hardly stopped at Murray’s match. No. 2 seed Simona Halep found herself fighting off a challenge from an American college sophomore. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, seeded ninth and playing great tennis on hardcourts leading up to the U.S. Open, dropped a set and needed a tiebreaker to win another in a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over Juan Mónaco.
Venus Williams, 34, seeded 19th but playing one of the few touring players older than she is — Kimiko Date-Krumm, 43 — started out by spraying errors all over the court before rallying to win, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
That victory required Williams to overcome 36 unforced errors, 19 of them in the first set. In the third set, both players were hounded by bees, enough that Williams called for help. The trespassing bee was then ushered away by a ball boy and ball girl armed with towels.
Asked what was more troublesome, the bee or Date-Krumm, Williams laughed: “That’s a tough question. The bee was annoying, but Kimiko was tougher. She hits the ball like no one else on tour.”
No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny discovered the chaotic theme of the day the hard way, losing in four sets, 7-5, 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(1), to Nick Kyrgios, a 19-year-old Australian. But even though the 60th-ranked Kyrgios is unseeded at the Open, he is not an unknown quantity, having knocked Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon. Kyrgios takes full advantage of the energy of youth, relentlessly pushing the pace of the match.
Kyrgios snatched the first two sets before wobbling. He became so frustrated he earned three code violations, one for hitting a ball nearly out of Court 17.
“It just comes from having high expectations most of the time,” said Kyrgios, who would have defaulted the match with one more code violation. “I have been an emotional player most of my career. Maybe I will be able to manage it in the future.”
When Youzhny looked as if he might send the match to a fifth set, Kyrgios came back from a breakdown in the fourth to grab victory in a tiebreaker.
“I was struggling a little bit about that two-and-a-half-hour mark, but I knew that if I hung in I would get that second wind where I could start playing good tennis again,” Kyrgios said.
The same could be said for Halep, who seemed to be on the verge of coming unglued in the first set of her 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-2 victory over Danielle Rose Collins.
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