Tennis Prodigy Auger-Aliassime Dispatches Andy Murray In Straight Sets At U.S. Open

Andy Murray ran into a woodchipper during Thursday’s second-round match at the U.S. Open against rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime, getting beaten in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

Murray said, “He kind of played how I expected. He’s a big guy. He takes the ball on. There’s obviously fairly quick conditions here, as well. I expected him to play that way. He, maybe, served a little bit better tonight than he had in the last couple of weeks, which helped. He got quite a lot of free points with the first serve, and then even when I was getting a racket on it he was able to dictate off the first shot of the rally, as well. Physically, you know, I actually did pretty well I thought in the first round. But I think the more tournaments that you play, the more matches that you play, you build up that sort of robustness in your body which right now I don’t really have.”

The former tennis legend has fallen off a little bit in the past years as the big four of men’s tennis — Murray, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic — are falling out of contention a little more every year with Nadal and Federer both opting out of the U.S. Open this year due to injury or coronavirus concerns.

Auger-Aliassime, who still awaits his third-round opponent, made easy work of the Scot but was very respectful in his postgame comments. “It’s an amazing feeling. I wish the fans were here,” said Auger-Aliassime. “Life is funny, I came here as a kid in 2011 and it’s crazy that nine years later I’m here getting the win.”

It is unclear what the future holds for the 33-year-old Murray. His age indicates that he can still compete for Grand Slams, but the miles he has accumulated may say otherwise.