US Open: Andy Murray through in straight sets but Scot struggles to find his rhythm

IF ANDY Murray had been dreaming of winning his first grand slam trophy before the US Open began – bizarrely, he started having such dreams after losing the Wimbledon final – then he will be having nightmares about his opening round in Flushing Meadows for many nights to come.

Murray did win his first match, sure enough, but his 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Alex Bogomolov Jr was not one that he will want to remember. The same player who had demolished Roger Federer in straight sets in the Olympic final just three weeks ago was nervous, ratty and completely unsettled by his first trip to the huge Arthur Ashe stadium. The Scot could do nothing right for the first hour and a half and little Bogomolov was simply trying his luck.

Bogomolov has spent much of this season running backwards as fast as his short but muscular legs would carry him. Having reached a career high ranking of No 33 last autumn, he found himself with a mountain of ranking points to defend this year. And the thought almost finished him.

It was not so much the pressure of thinking about what was at stake while he was actually playing that floored him. It was the sheer dread of what was to come that caused his palms to sweat and his pulse to race as he boarded the flight to get there. He was a nervous wreck before he even got to every tournament and, unsurprisingly, he was little more than cannon fodder when he finally got on court.

Then again, yesterday Murray found himself with a new set of emotional problems that he was not expecting. Winning the Olympic gold medal was supposed to have given him confidence – he certainly claimed that he felt much calmer and more assured as he settled into Flushing Meadows – but such confidence was supposed to push him one step closer to winning his first grand slam trophy. That thought brought with it extra pressure and as he faced a man he was supposed to be able to beat with relative ease, he tightened up.

In the first set, Murray’s first serve figures were a miserable 28 per cent. But if that was a cause for concern, the fact that he seemed to have forgotten how to construct a point, pick a shot or put away a simple winner was a huge worry. The only comfort for both Murray and his followers was that he could not play any worse than he did in the opening few games of the match.

Usually, Murray can snap out of a slump with one decent shot or one duff line call (a sense of outrage can clear the mind and sharpen the focus in no time), but not even Bogomolov acting like an idiot could shake the world No 4 from his funk.

Just as Murray was squaring up to wallop the ball from the midcourt, the Russian popped up at the net and started waving his arms about – an obvious distraction and against the rules – and in response, Murray went to drill the ball straight at him but found the net instead. Bogomolov fell to the ground as if shot, while Murray just turned on his heel and trudged back to the baseline.

No matter how he felt, it was obvious that Murray could only get better while Bogomolov was already doing the best that he could. But as Murray wrapped up the first set – his foe could not hold serve to save himself – he was immediately back in trouble in the second. Dropping serve in the first game of that set, it took him another seven games to get back on level terms and only then did he start to look like a man with a plan.

As his serving statistics improved and his forehand carried a little more weight, he began to play like the world No 4, the No 3 seed here and a man with pretensions to the title. Screaming at himself to “Focus! Focus!” this was still not Murray at his best – nor anything like it – but it was at least a seasoned campaigner getting the job done. And after two hours and 15 minutes, Murray finished the job with one last backhand winner.

Yesterday’s trials could be forgotten as soon he got back to the locker room; Murray had lived to fight another day and that is all that mattered.