This is was the sort of match Andy Murray came back for, the sort of competition and comeback he always lived for, the reason he …
This is was the sort of match Andy Murray came back for, the sort of competition and comeback he always lived for, the reason he went through two hip operations and all the hard work that followed. And it was the type of vintage Murray performance — undaunted by a deficit, adjusting on the fly, muttering all the way — that was too compelling not to watch, so while there are no fans allowed into this U. S. Open because of the pandemic, fellow pros made their way into the stands to see the popular 2012 champion save a match point Tuesday and, eventually, win. Playing his first Grand Slam match in nearly 20 months, toiling on his metal hip for 4 hours,39 minutes in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Murray put together his 10th career comeback from two sets down and beat Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6,4-6,7-6 (5),7-6 (4),6-4. “It was pretty emotional straight after the match finished, when I got back to the locker room — sort of look at my phone, see the messages from family and friends, the team and stuff. They’re the people that have kind of seen me go through everything, been there, seen the tough times,” said Murray, who next plays 15th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 20-year-old from Canada. “I don’t know how many of us actually believed I’d be back kind of winning matches like that.” Murray’s big concern after the match was whether he could get permission to use the ice bath in the Ashe locker room (he later said he did). “They said it’s for emergencies. For me, this is an emergency right now. My body hurts,” said the 33-year-old Murray, who was treated for blisters on his two big toes by a trainer during a medical timeout. “That’s by far the most tennis I’ve played since 2019, really.” And so many of the sport’s biggest names were there to witness it. They included Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, Naomi Osaka, Garbiñe Muguruza and others, some noshing while sitting on the balconies of their personal “lounges” — Ashe suites that normally bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars during this tournament but were assigned to seeded players because of the ban on spectators.
