Andy Murray beats Milos Raonic to make US Open quarters

 

US Open

  • Venue: Flushing Meadows
  • Dates: 27 August - 9 September

Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online; live text commentary on the day's best match

Britain's Andy Murray produced a late-night masterclass to nullify the threat of big-serving Milos Raonic and book his place in the US Open last eight.

Murray outclassed his 21-year-old opponent 6-4 6-4 6-2 in exactly two hours to reach his eighth consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final.

Match Analysis

Image of Jonathan Overend Jonathan Overend BBC tennis correspondent

"Texts flew to the phone of Murray's coach Ivan Lendl last night which put the Briton's achievement of reaching eight successive Grand Slam quarter-finals into perspective.

Apparently, it was big news that Tomas Berdych, who, like Lendl, hails from the Czech Republic, had made his first US Open quarter-final, completing the set. Reaching this stage is not easy and should never be taken for granted.

As for Murray, his win over Raonic was ultra professional and tactically brilliant. It was comfortably his best of the tournament so far."

He enthralled the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd and won just before rain arrived, having not faced any break points.

The Scot, 26, will face 12th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia on Wednesday.

"I used a lot of variation tonight," said Murray. "Milos has a huge game. I got lucky a couple of times but hit my passing shots very well.

"I had only played him one time before and you start to see things after a few games. I was just trying to react as quickly as possible.

"Sometimes the serves fly past you, sometimes you get a racquet on them and tonight I got a racquet on them. I tried to stay focused for every point and did a good job of that."

Murray looked exhausted in Saturday's third-round win over Feliciano Lopez, but any concerns about his condition were swiftly banished.

Raonic had won their only previous meeting - at April's Barcelona Open - and came into the match with 89 aces in the tournament.

Match stats

Murray Raonic

8

Aces

14

64%

1st serves

70%

1

Double faults

6

31

Winners

34

12

Errors

27

88%

1st serve win %

70%

59%

2nd serve win %

31%

39%

Receiving pts won

22%

4/12

Break points

0/0

Yet despite facing a flurry of huge deliveries early on, Murray soon got his eye in and registered a break point in game seven.

Raonic averted the danger on that occasion, but Murray struck at the next time of asking with a drop shot, before serving out an opening set in which he made only two unforced errors.

The British number one was turning defence into attack almost at will, while dominating from both the baseline and at the net.

Murray's superiority was illustrated in game two of the second set when he chased down a well-placed lob, swivelled and laced a crisp forehand winner past a stationary Raonic.

The breakthrough arrived in game five as Raonic aggressively saved two break points only to net a backhand on the third.

Murray swiftly extended his advantage and continued to impose himself in set three with a number of stunning passing shots.

After again finding the net on break point, Raonic looked a beaten man and Murray struck once more for 5-2 before comfortably serving out.

Fellow Britons Jamie Delgado and Ken Skupski were knocked out of the men's doubles with a 6-2 6-4 third-round defeat by Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.

Colin Fleming and India's Sania Mirza were beaten 6-3 7-5 by Kveta Peschke and Marcin Matkowski in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

Britain's Kyle Edmund upset 14th seed Noah Rubin on the United States 6-3 6-3 in the boys' singles first round and paired up with Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva to beat Christian Garin and Gianluigi Quinzi 7-5 6-2 in the doubles.

Stockport's Liam Broady won 6-4 6-3 against Spain's Jose Antonio Salazar Martin, while Evan Hoyt and Josh Ward-Hibbert saw off Harrison Adams and Ronnie Schneider 6-4 6-3.