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Serena Williams, Andy Murray Add Entries To U.S. Open History

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by Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

 

Tuesday, September 1, 2020 provided two more storylines in the history of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships As a chronicler of tennis history, in particular in a “On This Day In Tennis History” format, like the book by the same name, here are the two new historical matches

 

September 1, 2010 – Andy Murray stages one of the great comebacks in U.S. Open history, coming back from two sets to love and a service break down and saving a match point to defeat Yoshihto Nishioka of Japan 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in the first round played in front of dozens of fellow players, coaches and event workers in Arthur Ashe Stadium due to the coronavirus global pandemic. Murray trails 2-0 in the third set, but rallies to get back on serve. Nishioka fails to convert three break chances at 5-5 and later leads 4-3 in the tiebreak but fails to close out the 2012 U.S. Open champion. Murray fights off break points in the second and sixth games in the fourth set while saving a match point at 5-6, Ad-Out with a strong first serve. The win marks the 10th time that Murray comes back from 0-2 down, tying the Open era record held by Roger Federer, Boris Becker and Aaron Krickstein. It also marks his first singles win at a major tournament in two years after enduring through near career-ending hip problems and two surgeries.

September 1, 2020 – Playing on her daughter Olympia’s third birthday, Serena Williams wins her 102nd career match at the U.S. Open, breaking the all-time tournament record held by Chris Evert, defeating fellow American Kristie Ahn 7-5, 6-3 in front of no ticketed fans due to the coronavirus pandemic. “In a weird way I feel like every time I come here I’m being told I broke another record,” Williams says. “I don’t think I appreciate it enough, which is unfortunate. But I’m in the middle of a Grand Slam, so it’s not the time to be focused for me on records when I’m thinking about winning a tournament.”

It was on September 3, 1989 when Evert won her 101st and final U.S. Open match, as documented below from the “On This Day In Tennis History” book (for sale and download here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257421/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_8d5tFb7DEM61M)

1989 – Thirty-year-old Chris Evert defeats 15-year-old Monica Seles 6-0, 6-2 for her 101st and last U.S. Open singles victory. Evert commits only 17 unforced errors – compared to 34 from Seles – to advance into the U.S. Open quarterfinals for a 19th time in 19 U.S. Opens. Says Evert of her near flawless performance, “I don’t know where it came from.” Writes Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. “In many ways this was a match of remembrance. Evert had played it countless times before, against all the Tracy Austins and Andrea Jaegers she has outlasted over her 19-year era. Seles was a pogo stick of a girl with harmful, two-fisted strokes like those of a younger Evert.  Ranked No. 12 in the world, she defeated the slowing, tiring fourth-seeded Evert in straight sets in April’s Virginia Slims ofHouston, and was widely expected to do so again today. Instead Evert accomplished her 101st Open victory, a record for men and women.”

Serena Williams
Serena Williams

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