ANDY MURRAY will spend the next two days trying to avoid any thought of playing his first grand slam semi-final.
The British No.1 and sixth seed reached the last four of the US Open in New York last night with another thrilling victory at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre, holding off the 17th seed Juan Martin Del Potro in a four-hour, four-set battle
having led by two sets and a break against the Argentine teenager. It is the furthest 21-year-old Murray has progressed in any of the four grand slams having made it to his first quarter-final in a slam at Wimbledon earlier this summer.
Yet with his semi-final against world No.1 Rafael Nadal – a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 winner over Mardy Fish – set for Saturday, the Scot said he would leave his pre-match planning until the last possible minute.
"I won't think about it much," Murray said following his 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 7-5 victory over 19-year-old Del Potro.
"I'm sure the night before the match I'll think about it a bit, and then the day off I'll obviously speak to my coach and talk about the game plan and stuff.
"But I don't want to be worrying about it or thinking too much about it before I go out there."
Murray said he was not thrilled at the prospect of the men's semi-finals and the final being just 24 hours apart.
"I think it's better if they play Friday/Sunday," he said. "It's been like that for ages. You know, it's more I think for the fans more than anything. The players should be able to give it their best shot. It's a slam final, so they're going to get up for it.
"I just think as a fan, if a guy plays a 7-6 in the fifth match and plays for four-and-a-half hours and the other guy plays for an hour and a half, I know who I'd be putting my money on the next day.
"I think for the fans you're not going to see the best tennis of the guy who's played the long match."
Del Potro, unbeaten in 23 matches before last night, during which time he won four ATP Tour titles, added another four sets to Murray's workload with a remarkable recovery from two sets down to take Murray's time on court in New York so far this tournament to almost 14 hours.
There had been some bad blood between the rivals following a previous meeting in Rome earlier this year when the pair exchanged words after Del Potro drilled a ball straight at Murray's head, the Argentine following up with an insult aimed at the Scot's mother for which he had not apologised.
Murray had played down talk of animosity before their quarter-final and afterwards revealed that Del Potro had made his peace with him during a post-match conversation at the net. "I think quite early on in the match there was sort of a feeling of respect between us in terms of our games and stuff. There was no arguing over line calls or anyone trying to get in anyone's face.
"I think a lot was made of what happened the last time I played him. I said it wasn't going to be a problem. And just at the end of the match he said, 'I'm sorry for what happened before'. I told him it was a great run he had been on. I'm sure we'll have some great matches in the future."
Today could be a day of double celebration for the Murray family, with Andy's brother Jamie playing in the final of the US Open mixed doubles later.
He is going for his second grand slam title after winning the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon last year.
The brothers' proud grandmother Shirley watched Andy's quarter final win at her home in Dunblane, Perthshire, in the early hours of this morning.
Her husband Roy is in New York for the tournament.
She said: "I watched every ball and thoroughly enjoyed it. Andy kept his cool and really worked it out.
"He's very determined. There were one or two hiccups but you can't hit a perfect ball every time.
"All credit to Del Potro – he got his act together and made a real fight of it."
Shirley said she would be tuning in for Jamie's doubles game later today, and Andy's clash with Nadal on Saturday.
She said: "Andy's never beaten Nadal – he's the only one of the big guys he's never beaten, but there's always a first time."
The full article contains 801 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
