A bad day for British tennis in New York

FORMER winner of the US Open Championship and Britain’s most successful tennis star for generations, Andy Murray, has had a difficult few days at Flushing Meadows, having to fight back against players who are ranked below him.

For the first time since 2010, he failed to at least reach the quarter finals and the number three seed was beaten three sets to one in the fourth round by South African 15^th seed Kevin Anderson on day eight of the tournament in the evening of September 7.

Of the so called ‘Big Four’ only Federer and Djokavic have reached the quarter final as Spanish favourite Rafael Nadal was eliminated in the third round.

On the same evening, British hopes were dashed further as unseeded Johanna Konta was defeated by former Wimbledon champion, the Czech and fifth seed Petra Kvitova, also in the fourth round. This was her best performance ever as she had previously only got as far as the second round.

One consolation for the players is that prize money for reaching the fourth round of the tournament amounts to just over $200,000 (€178,000) for each of them.