New York, Aug 31 Former US Open champion, Britain's Andy Murray, has said that he is ready to play gruelling tennis and the only thing he needs is to "spend time on the court", getting the chance to play against some top-ranked players.
Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece was made to work hard in the opening-round match of the last Grand Slam of the year by Murray as the Greek rallied past the former world No. 1 and 2012 US Open champion 2-6, 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round on Tuesday.
Tsitsipas saved two set points at 4/6 in the second-set tie-break to avoid going down two sets to love, before advancing in a marathon four-hours-and-48-minute contest. It was vintage Murray in the opening set and the 34-year-old held set points for a two-set lead only to concede the tie-break.
The world No. 112 looked to become the lowest-ranked player to beat a top-3 opponent at the US Open and had the Greek staring down a second straight Grand Slam first-round exit but the British player came up short.
"I've said it a lot over these past few months that I know I'm capable of playing that tennis. I need to spend time on the court, getting the chance to play against these guys," Murray was quoted as saying by atptour.com.
"Ultimately, when I get on the court with them, I need to prove it. I guess tonight I proved some things to a certain extent. Obviously didn't win the match tonight.
"From a physical perspective, I thought I did quite well. I would have liked to have done a little bit better physically at times, but there were also other circumstances that were not helping that either. Overall I did well tonight, but I'm really, really disappointed... after that, frustrated, all those things. Really disappointed," said Murray.
Murray has had two hip surgeries so far the first in January 2018 at Melbourne which have forced him to miss several Grand Slams besides forcing him to contemplate retirement at one stage in 2018 and 2019.
It was the first time Murray had fallen in the opening round at Flushing Meadows in 15 outings and also a first time he had been caught out on his footwear. Late in the second set, on a humid New York evening, the 34-year-old realised he had only one pair of shoes and tried to dry them out with a cold-air hose at the change of ends.
"That's my bad, but I've never had that happen in a match. The shoes I was wearing were pretty new," Murray said. "I've never had issues with my shoes during a match before. Certainly never what was happening there. The shoes got so wet that at the end of the set I was slipping basically and was losing balance. That's why I needed to change after the set and it was fine. But I guess something for me to learn from and in the future make sure that doesn't happen again."
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