By Philip James
Defending champion Andy Murray dropped his first set of the 2013 US Open on Friday but still won his match against Argentinean Leonardo Mayer to reach the third round.
In a busy but successful day in the men’s doubles, the all-British 12th-seeded team of Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray won their tricky second round match in straight sets.
Also winning second round matches on Friday were Jamie Murray with his Australian partner, John Peers, and London-born Dominic Inglot who with Treat Huey of the Philippines are 16th seeds.
It was not such a good day however for Laura Robson who could not repeat her upset victory of Na Li from 2012, losing to the 5th seed from China 6-2, 7-5.
Neither was it all good news in the doubles as Heather Watson lost her opening round Women’s doubles match with Vera Dushevina 6-1, 7-5 to Sandra Klemenschits and Andreja Klepac.
Colin Fleming lost his second match of the day as he and Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives lost in round one of the mixed doubles to Czech pair Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak.
The defeats for Robson, Watson and Fleming on day 5 end British interest in the Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles draws.
Below, we briefly review yesterday’s results and look to next rounds matchups.
Andy Murray GBR (2) def Leonardo Mayer ARG 7-5 6-1 3-6 6-1
Victory against the world number 81 may have looked to many like a formality for Andy Murray but it was far from it.
Mayer has big ground strokes including a single-handed backhand, rare in today’s game, and is unusually comfortable at the net for an Argentinean (he has in fact been in the doubles final of three ATP events, winning one of them).
Indeed, Mayer came to the net twice as much as the British number one whilst hitting more winners and a better first serve percentage.
Truth be told, Murray did not play as well as he had done in the first round win over Michael LLodra as he came to terms with switch from Arthur Ashe to Louis Armstrong Stadium.
However, while the serve wasn’t functioning at its best, Murray’s class still shone through, clear from his far superior points won on 2nd serve %, break point conversion and winners to unforced errors ratio.
So Mayer defeated, next up Mayer… Florian that is, the world number 47 from Germany.
The big German has played well without being truly tested so far, drawn against 28th seed Juan Monaco in round one who retired injured two sets and 3-0 down in the third.
Then in the second round Mayer beat Donald Young, the American yet to live up to his nation’s expectations, again in straight sets.
Mayer has been as high as 18 in the world but that was back in mid 2011 and has not beaten Murray in two meetings, both on the German’s favourite surface of clay, the most recent at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid in May this year.
Murray won that in two very tight tie-break sets but the hard court surface in New York will play to the Scot’s strengths.
Colin Fleming (GBR) [12] /Jonathan Marray (GBR) [12] def. Ryan Harrison (USA) / Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 6-3 6-4
After a come-back first round win against Carlos Berlocq and Eduardo Schwank, ‘Flemarray’ did well to navigate this very tricky tie.
Robert Lindstedt is a doubles veteran with a higher ranking of the four men on court of 17, but not playing with his normal partner Daniel Nestor this week.
Usually seeded, the Swede is this week partnering Ryan Harrison who is still a top 100 singles player.
Next up for the twelfth seeds… well we don’t quite know yet.
The Brits can enjoy a day off on Saturday and watch sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin play Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Elgin for the reward of being their third round opponents.
While anything can happen in doubles, it would be an upset if Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin, ranked 7th and 23rd in doubles respectively, were not the team Flemarray face in the third round.
Bopanna has had a great year and is a player Fleming knows well, as the two won the ATP Open 13 in Marseille together this year.
The Brits lost to Bopanna in the quarter-finals of Queens this year when he partnered Mahesh Bhupathi.
In fact Bopanna features four times in the top 60 doubles teams of 2013 and seems to have picked Roger-Vasselin as the partner he will attempt to reach the ATP World Tour Finals with.
Whomever their opponents, it will be an impressive scalp for 21st-ranked Fleming and 31st-ranked Marray if they can reach round four.
Treat Huey (PHI) [16] / Dominic Inglot (GBR) [16] def. Daniele Bracciali (ITA) / Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) 6-3 6-3
It was an impressive win for ‘Bomb Treat’ (pronounced Tret) over Bracciali and Dlouhy, ranked 54th and 42nd in the world in doubles.
Like Murray and Fleming, their round three opponents will be decided on Saturday as third seeded Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez take on Australian duo Chris Guccione and Bernard Tomic.
The pair from Spain have had a consistent if not spectacular 2013, reaching five semis and one final of ATP world tour events which has them firmly entrenched in third in the race to the World Tour Finals.
Granollers and Lopez are 6th and 5th in the doubles rankings are will be firm favourites over 94th ranked Guccione and singles specialist Tomic.
Jamie Murray (GBR) / John Peers (AUS) def. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) / Andre Sa (BRA) 6-7(7) 7-5 7-5
Despite a great maiden year for the team of Jamie Murray and John Peers, the pair’s individual rankings were not high enough to get them seeded at the US Open, which has meant an extremely tough draw.
The Commonwealth pairing impressively saw off ninth seeds Marrero and Verdasco in round one before coming through another tough test in round two.
Andre Sa is a doubles veteran, with a career high ranking of 17 and though Feliciano Lopez is a singles specialist he is one of the last in a dying breed of natural volley-ers in the singles game.
Next up for ‘JJ’ is a third round match against either American duo Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram or seventh seeds Julien Benneteau and Nenad Zimonjic.
Benneteau and Zimonjic have been in a fine run of form, reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon before winning ATP500 Citi Open in Washington.
So all three British constituent teams await confirmation of their third round opponents but barring any major upsets will have to get past a top seeded team to reach round four.