20130901murrayPrior to teaming up with Lendl, Murray would play matches like this.  More than any player in the “big 4”, he would often let his opponents push him around, while he would retrieve and retrieve, hope to elicit some errors and hit a few winners.  Since he’s worked with Lendl, Murray has played more aggressively, tried taking control of the point.

Leonardo Mayer, however, made life difficult for the defending champ.  Mayer hit his serve much bigger than Murray, averaging 120 mph on the first serve and 105 mph on the second serve, both numbers that are much better than Murray who averages under 110 mph on the first serve and under 80 mph on the second.

Mayer is one of those players that had some success on clay prior to injuries causing his rank to dip.  He’s the kind of player that Murray shouldn’t have trouble with, but turns out to hit the ball quite hard.

This is one thing that’s hard to see on TV.  Television, especially the angle that’s used most often (the high view), flattens speed so it’s hard to tell how fast (or slow) a shot it.  They can look equally fast, despite Mayer hitting the ball quite hard.

The big difference was lapses in Mayer’s concentration which occurred at the end of the first set, then throughout the second and fourth set.  Mayer did achieve a break in the third, and held on to his serve to take the third set.

Upsets of the day

Lleyton Hewitt pulled off an upset of Juan Martin del Potro in a match of ex US Open champs (Hewitt in 2001 and del Potro in 2009).  del Potro has sometimes played a bit too defensively, not taking advantage of his power on serve and forehand.  Apparently, he was increasingly bothered by his wrist.

Djokovic is pressed in win over Becker

Becker had a break in the first set, but Djokovic recovered and pushed the first set to a tiebreak.  He won the second and third sets easily.