Andy Murray can’t rest on laurels in bid to make US Open stuff of dreams

For all that the Scot has had a fairytale summer so far – reaching the Wimbledon final, winning the hearts of everyone on Centre Court and many millions more besides as he made his tearful speech at the trophy ceremony and then coming back a few weeks later to win the Olympic gold medal – this is not the stuff of Murray’s dreams. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“Four days after Wimbledon, I dreamed that I won Wimbledon,” Murray said, “and I woke up in the morning – and I was just starting to feel better [after losing the final] – so that didn’t help. Then, a few days after the Olympics, I dreamed that I lost in the final of the Olympics. Obviously, waking up and remembering that I had won was nice.”

But with that gold medal around his neck, Murray does have a new spring in his step as he approaches the US Open, even if he is trying to keep everything in perspective. With Rafael Nadal back at home with a knee injury, the Scot is the No 3 seed in New York and he is many people’s favourite for the title. Yet, in order to reach the final, he has six matches to negotiate. There is a lot of work to do in the coming fortnight and no time for dwelling on past victories.

“You think about it a lot,” Murray said. “It was definitely like that for a good week, ten days after [the Olympics]. But the thing with tennis is that we have tournaments to look forward to in the not-too-distant future. Once you start getting on the match court again, you never forget about it, but that feeling is a bit different. You’re nervous going into matches and preparing for events. That takes your mind off what happened a few weeks ago.”

It is highly unlikely that Alex Bogomolov Jr, Murray’s first round opponent today, will bring the Scot out in a cold sweat of panic. They played three times last year and while Bogomolov won the first encounter, that match came in the middle of Murray’s slump after losing the Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic. Once he had cleared his head and regained his focus, Murray was not troubled by the Russian again. That should be the case today, too – and Bogomolov certainly seems to think so.

“He’s an all-around great player,” Bogomolov said, looking a little weary. “His serve is really tough to read and to return and he’s got one of the best returns in the game right now and he’s an all-around great player: great hands and great touch and now he’s showing that he’s got great power as well, so all around, a good player.”

Even the thought that, as the underdog, he will feel no pressure and ought to be able to go for broke did not seem to lift the Russian’s mood. “That’s one way to look at it,” he said with a shrug. “It is the US Open. I’ve had great memories here. I came here as a junior guy and have been here for a lot of years. It would be incredible to upset the No 3 seed this year, but I am just looking at it as a great opportunity and hopefully it will be a great match.”

But Bogomolov has won just 11 matches this year, and in one of those, his opponent pulled out with an injury mid-match. He knows his place in the pecking order and today his role is that of cannon fodder.

Today is just the opening salvo in what Murray hopes will be a long and successful campaign. This is his 28th grand slam event and he has established his own routines and his own ways of dealing with the pressure. Even if New York is still one of his favourite cities – he loves the constant buzz of the Big Apple – he knows that the quiet life is the only way to cope with a major tournament. As a result, he will be shunning the bright lights and the constant thrum of city life and, instead, has booked himself into a quiet hotel off the beaten track. It may not be his usual base in New York, but it will be his haven for the next couple of weeks.

“I just decided to go for something a bit different,” he said. “At a lot of the slams, I have tried, especially the last few years, to stay somewhere where it’s a little bit quieter just because that’s what I like. When I have played well at Wimbledon, I’ve stayed at home and it’s normally fairly quiet where I live. I like that.

“I like just being able to get back to the room and just be able to chill out. Obviously, New York can be very, very noisy if you’re staying right in the middle of Manhattan. That’s why I decided to change this year.

“When I had a few days off, I still went out and walked around a bit, did shopping, that sort of stuff. It’s just when it gets closer and closer to the tournament I try and stay away from the streets and just in my own little bubble, I guess. When the tournament finishes, that changes. I still love coming here to visit. It’s such a fun place to come.”

And as he chillaxes in his little island of calm, he may, perhaps, dream. Any mention of the US Open in his reverie?

“Not yet, not yet, but I’ll keep you posted,” he said with a grin. But he knows, as Ivan Lendl, his coach, knows, that if he can keep his form and his focus as he did at the Olympics, the US Open trophy could be his this year.

So should he dream of losing the US Open final a couple of weeks from now, we will know that dreams really can come true.