Murray pins hopes on US Open victory

SCOTSMAN Andy Murray is hoping to recover the form that saw him kick off his Grand Slam winning ways at the US Open in 2012, when he takes on world ranked number 70, Dutchman Robin Haasat Flushing Meadows, about 17.00 hours (CET) this afternoon.

Murray is determined to put recent losses behind him and let the world know that he is still a contender for the major prizes.

He arrives in New York following three successive quarter-final defeats, and most noticeably without a title since last year’s Wimbledon championship.

Since cementing his place in British sporting history as the first home grown player to win Wimbledon’s men’s title in seven decades, Murray has endured a split from his coach Ivan Lendl, undergone extensive back surgery, endured a trophy drought and seen a slide down the world rankings to number 9. Murray hasn’t hovered near the precipice of the top 10 since he made his first ever Grand Slam final debut appearance, oddly enough at Flushing Meadows in 2009.

His back is repaired and he’s taken a stance that has ruffled feathers in the men’s dressing rooms by hiring former Women’s French Open champion, Amelie Mauresmo as his coach and has finally begun to display some of the stoicism he developed under Lendl’s steely, no-nonsense approach to adversity in play.

The partnership with Mauresmo is new and under much scrutiny amid sniping from the sides. Murray and Mauresmo are the outsiders, the Scot who won Wimbledon where Englishman Tim Henman could not and Mauresmo the first openly gay woman to compete and win against rivals who thought her fair game for their taunts. Both player and coach won two Grand Slams each, together a third is on the cards, perhaps at Flushing Meadows this year.