Andy Murray

Well, that was fast.

The Roger Federer of old returned this evening and dispatched Andy Murray in a quick and breezy 1 hour, 51 minutes, in three sets, at 6-2, 7-5, 6-2

It was evident early on that Federer wasn't going to let Murray touch him tonight. He blitzed when he needed to, and showed that elegant game that he displayed to devastating effect against Novak Djokovic in the semis.

With Federer's triumphant return, men's tennis leaves this U.S. Open in its best shape in two decades. The parity is incredible: Djokovic grabbed a championship, Nadal found a way to win on clay and grass, Federer won, and newcomer Andy Murray has nudged his way awfully close to the first-tier of top tennis players in the world.

We've entered a new golden age, and Federer just capped off an incredibly stirring 2008 season for the game.

Andy Murray just came off the practice courts and is about two hours from the biggest match of his life.

If he plays anything like the way he played yesterday, Roger Federer might have a real test.

But then again, these matches often come down to big-situation experience (please see: Serena v. Jankovic last night, or Djokovic v. Federer, 2007 U.S. Open final). Prior to this tournament, the 21-year-old Murray had never done better than the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam; Federer has won 12, and has been in the finals in 12 of the last 13 Grand Slams.

Reporters in the press center will be writing B-copy for two story lines: Can Federer shut up all his critics and win his first Grand Slam of the year, his 13th of his career, and his fifth consecutive Open? And can Murray put his stamp on the game and nudge his way into the game's elite group of Federer-Nadal-Djokovic with a major upset?

Murray owns the head-to-head against Federer (he's 2-1), but Federer hasn't lost here since 2003.

In the tennis world, we have grown used to assuming that when good players lose, especially in "upsets," the loser must be suffering from injuries. And the truth of injury declarations has been a factor towards the end of this tournament, as when Novak Djokovic publicly defended himself against Andy Roddick's maybe-joking doubt about Djokovic's medical issues.

In a graceful press conference after his semifinal loss against Andy Murray, though, Rafael Nadal told the truth: Murray just played better.

"Injuries? What injuries?" he said in response to a question which seemed to assume that Nadal must have been dealing with a handicap. "No, no. Not one during all the season."

So, if it wasn't Nadal's injuries, what could possibly have led to this unforeseen victory?!?! "He play better than me and he beat me."

Simple.

The grounds, at about 11:30 this morning. Not a soul in sight here, other than a few scattered security people.

In six hours, there will be more than 23,000 fans here.

The top tier of men's tennis has gotten so deep and so good in the last year and now it'll have to welcome a new member: Andy Murray.

Murray just defeated the 5-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal in four sets, winning the fourth set on the biggest stage in tennis with a 6-4 victory. He broke Nadal twice, and owned the entire game on his racquet. In the match, he had 65 winners, and 54 errors, compared to the 32 and 40 for Nadal.

Unfortunately, we will not have a Nadal and Federer final for a third consecutive Grand Slam. The good news is Murray is worthy of the men's finals--this is clearly his breakthrough tournament and he absolutely exhausted Nadal today.  read more »

About 26 hours after the match was delayed yesterday, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have resumed play at a packed-house at Arthur Ashe Stadium, a far cry from their match at a half-filled Louis Armstrong yesterday.

And Nadal, who was up a break in third set yesterday, has taken the set, 6-4.

Reflection on early play: Nadal held all three of his service games, but Murray, particularly in the last game, played really nice defense. The conventional wisdom going into today's match was that Nadal, a 5-time Grand Slam Champion and a veteran for matches like this one, would come out today playing with soaring confidence and Murray, a neophyte to this stage, would play tight. Not so. Murray had a break chance on Nadal's serve, and just missed getting the game evened at 5-5.

We're going to have a good final two (one?) sets.

Play for the rest of the day has been canceled.

This means the Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray semifinal--which Murray currently leads 6-2, 7-6, 2-3--will resume tomorrow at 4pm, with coverage on CBS. Women's tennis will have its biggest stage ever, with a primetime 9pm final tomorrow night on CBS. The winner of the Nadal-Murray match will play Roger Federer in the men's final on Monday at 5pm.

Well, this is going to be an interesting day!

Today, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic square off at 11am (promptly!) at Ashe. Nadal and Murray follow, though the USTA allows the possibiltiy that they may play on Armstrong.

We thought we retired that court four days ago, but with the possibility of squeezing the men's finals and the women's finals on the same day is too tempting for the USTA. And they may play both men's semis at the same time.

This is something the USTA has never faced over the last four decades, and here comes a ridiculously insane day of tennis.

Will they get it through?

Boo, Hanna!

Every question from reporters for the next two days will be focused on Serena and Venus Williams. Both players won tonight in straight sets which means they'll duel in the quarters on Wednesday night in what pretty much amounts the de facto women's final of this tournament.

Andy Murray also won tonight in three quick sets over Stanislas Wawrinka, and the red hot Argentine Juan Martin Del Porto won again moving him into the quarters

Honestly, this might be the best day at the Open in years. Each marquee match offers a lot:

Mardy Fish v. Gael Monfils:

Fish is finally coming into form with an impressive victory over James Blake, and now he plays the wonderfully entertaining Gael Monfils who had that fantastic run to the French Open semis this year. Our pick: MONFILS

Rafael Nadal v. Sam Querrey:

We've fallen in love with Querrey, and with some crowd support he should be able to give Nadal a run. But we're still rooting for Nadal because the propsect of that Nadal-Federer final is just far too attractive an idea.  read more »

The 20-year-old Scotsman Andy Murray was standing in the players' lounge after his 3-hour-and-37-minute, five-set win yesterday.

He was telling me about his spaghetti and steak dinner at an Italian place on the Upper East Side on 74th Street and how he visited the top of the Empire State Building, which was filled with other tourists.

I asked him if he had any particular goals for the Open.

"Nah, not really," he said, in a thick Scottish accent. "I've been hurt for the last four or five months with a wrist injury so I just wanna play well."

Then we started talking about his unranked third-round opponent, the Korean Hyung-Taik Lee.

"Yeah, I played him once before and I went 7-6 with him in the third,
so ..." He trailed off and then he made a sour face.

Happy Birthday, Andy Roddick! The 2003 U.S. Open Champ turned 25 today and won after Jose Acasuso retired after the third set. Other ranked straight sets winners today: Tomas Berdych, Anna Chakvetadze and Nadia Petrova. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Andy Murray both needed to go the distance to win their matches.

Men's no. 14 Guillermo Canas was upset today and Tommy Haas is down a set, which you can track here.

Maria Sharapova and James Blake play tonight.

I ran into celeb-coach Brad Gilbert -- the man who resurrected Andre Agassi's career and led Andy Roddick to his only Grand Slam -- and asked him for his thoughts on how to beat the rarely beatable Roger Federer.

"I coach [Andy] Murray, so the advice is in here," he said, tapping his head. "Won't give that away."

Was there anything he could tell us? Anything at all?

"No. Not about somebody that my guy can potentially play. I don't want [Federer] to read about it. Andy might have to play against him, so I don't want him to see or read nothing."

Okay!