US open: Andy Murray poised to pounce on title

Andy Murray admits he’s playing his best ever tennis as he looks to capitalise on the growing frailties of his rivals and capture a second US Open title.

Ahead of Monday’s start to the season’s final Grand Slam, the 29-year-old is the sport’s man of the moment.

Since losing the French Open final to Novak Djokovic in June, Murray has won Queen’s Club, a second Wimbledon title and successfully defended his Olympic crown in Rio.

His career-best 22-match win streak came to a halt at the hands of Marin Cilic in the Cincinnati final last weekend when he simply ran out of gas.

But that hasn’t dented his confidence that he can claim a second US Open, four years after his breakthrough in New York saw him become the first British man in 76 years to win a Grand Slam title. At 29, three-time major winner Murray admits he is taking positives from being in the twilight of his career.

Murray has played in all of the first three finals of the majors in 2016, losing to world no. 1 Djokovic in Melbourne and Paris.

Rare feat That’s a feat so rare that only two men have ever achieved it with Rod Laver the most recent in 1969.

The expectations proved too heavy a burden when the 12-time major winner was dumped out of Wimbledon in the third round for his earliest loss at a major in seven years.

Although he then won a record 30th Masters trophy in Toronto, a shock first-round defeat at the Olympics to Juan Martin del Potro and a withdrawal from Cincinnati with a wrist injury suggested all is not well with the 2011 and 2015 US Open winner.

“The wrist has not been ideal for three weeks. There are different methods of healing. One involved electricity treatment to enhance the recovery process,” said Djokovic who faces Jerzy Janowicz of Poland in his opener.

Outside of the top two, five-time champion Roger Federer, who has played every US Open since 2000, called time on his season after a five-set semi-final defeat to Raonic at Wimbledon. The 35-year-old aggravated a knee injury in that loss. Fellow old-stager Rafael Nadal, the 2010 and 2013 US Open champion, won gold in doubles at the Rio Olympics but lost the singles bronze medal play-off to Kei Nishikori. Nadal tackles Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan first up.

Other contenders are likely to be world number three Stan Wawrinka, a two-time semi-finalist, sixth-ranked Raonic, world number seven Kei Nishikori, the 2014 runner-up, Cilic, the surprise 2014 champion and 2009 winner Del Potro.