THE bookmakers may not quite see it this way – marginally – but the overwhelming feeling after yesterday’s draw here was that Andy Murray will go into next week’s US Open as the favourite to win the title.
Considering everything Novak Djokovic has done over the past few years, that might sound a little optimistic but unlike the Serb, who is nursing a left wrist injury, Murray is high on confidence and in the form of his life.
Fresh from winning his second Olympic singles gold medal in Rio, Murray has lost just twice since Madrid in May, a run that of course, included his second Wimbledon crown.
With Djokovic battling time and that wrist problem, Rafael Nadal still not free of pain in his own left wrist and Roger Federer missing through injury, Murray knows that he has a golden chance of winning a fourth grand slam.
The Scot looked in fine fettle as he practised with his coach, Ivan Lendl, at Flushing Meadows yesterday and a couple of days’ rest after reaching the final in Cincinnati has helped alleviate some minor soreness in his right shoulder.
“I took Monday and Tuesday completely off and since then it's just been pretty light, light practice, trying to get used to the conditions here," he said. "Different balls, the courts are normally pretty lively here.
“I played a lot of matches at night in Cincinnati and the last one at the Olympics, as well and conditions [here] during the day are quite different so I am just trying to get used to that.
“It's been fairly light. I haven't done anything away from the court, training, nothing like that. Just trying to be as fresh as I can at the start of the tournament.”
If Murray is feeling a little jaded – and only Djokovic has won more than his 50 matches this year – then he will have been delighted with his draw here.
Nadal, Marin Cilic, who beat him in Cincinnati, Milos Raonic, whom he beat in the Wimbledon final and big servers in John Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Jack Sock were all placed in the other half.
His first-round opponent, Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic, is a man he knows well, if not one he has always got on with, not least in Munich last year when after a run-in, he shouted: “No one likes you on Tour, everyone hates you”.
Yesterday, Murray played down the altercation, saying he had spoken to Rosol after the match and preferred to outline just how dangerous the Czech can be.
“He's a tough, tough opponent obviously,” he said. “Big, strong guy; goes for his shots; takes a lot of risks and has beaten good players over the years.”
Djokovic, meanwhile, admitted that he is still not 100 per cent and that “time is something I don’t have”, while he also revealed that his third-round Wimbledon defeat by American Sam Querrey was prompted by a problem in his personal life.
“It was nothing physical, it was not an injury,” he said. “It was some other things that I was going through privately. But it was nothing linked to the wrist injury I got in Rio.
“We all have private issues and things…we have to encounter and overcome in order to evolve as a human being. That was the period for me. It happened right there. It was resolved and life is going on like everything else.”
Murray, though, will only worry about things he can control.
“You have to make the most of every opportunity,” he said. “I want to make the most of every tournament I play in and try and win and achieve as much as I can the next few years.”
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