NEW YORK — For the first two sets, Andy Murray felt as if he couldn’t move.
Only when the realization came that his next move could be to the airport, not to the third round of the U.S. Open, did Murray’s legs get going.
The fourth-seeded Briton rallied for a 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-2, 6-0, 6-4 victory over Robin Haase of The Netherlands on Friday, a match that went the distance because, Murray conceded, he wasn’t having any luck chasing things down at the beginning.
“My legs were not getting me around the court like they normally do and I was out of position for a lot of balls,” Murray said. “Once I really just forced myself to get to as many balls as possible, kind of hustled a few points and got the break in the third set, I kind of started playing better. That’s really a big part of my game, so I think it was down to that.”
Murray has made every Grand Slam semifinal this year but is still — as he’s often reminded back home — in search of his first major title.
Serving at 5-4 Friday, Murray had match point and Haase hit a forehand that was called out. Haase challenged and the replay showed the ball barely clipped the line. But Murray answered with a pair of service winners on the next two points to close out the match.
And so, instead of heading home, Murray will stick around. His next match is against No. 25 Feliciano Lopez of Spain.
SHARAPOVA BOWS OUT
Third-seeded Maria Sharapova, a clear favorite in a women’s draw that gets more unpredictable by the day, made an unexpected exit with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 loss to No. 26 Flavia Pennetta.
“It’s just one of those days,” Sharapova said. “Unfortunately, it’s the U.S. Open.”
The defeat was the 2006 champion’s first loss in 13 three-set matches this year.
Sharapova made 12 double-faults, including two in the last game. She did not look sharp over a 2 hour, 29-minute match that featured plenty of nervous tennis.
Ninth-seeded Sam Stosur of Australia edged No. 24 Nadia Petrova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 in a match that took 3 hours, 16 minutes — the longest women’s match in the tournament’s history.
Stosur, the 2010 French Open runner-up, converted her fifth match point, breaking serve when Petrova netted a forehand. They barely avoided playing the first 39-game, three-tiebreaker match at Flushing Meadows in 20 years.
The previous longest women’s match was in 2008, when Sybille Bammer defeated Marion Bartoli in 3 hours, 5 minutes.
In other women’s matches, No. 2 Vera Zvonareva defeated No. 30 Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 7-5. Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and 28th-seeded Serena Williams play Saturday.
On the men’s side, No. 2 Rafael Nadal was leading Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-2 when Mahut retired with an injured stomach. He next faces 2002 Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, who beat 30th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick beat 18-year-old American Jack Sock 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to close out a day filled with U.S. stories — some of them about success, some not.
Another young American, 22-year-old Donald Young, fared better.
Once touted as the next big thing in American tennis, Young has struggled to fulfill his potential. On Friday, he ground out a 7-6 (7), 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) victory over No. 14 Stanislas Wawrinka — a match that compelled Patrick McEnroe, the head of USTA player development who had been at odds with Young this year, to tweet: “In tennis terms Donald Young became a man today.”
Also playing well now is American John Isner, who beat fellow American Robby Ginepri, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 for his seventh straight win. Isner’s next match comes against another American, Alex Bogomolov Jr.
American James Blake was also on the court Friday, a straight-set loser to fifth-seeded David Ferrer.
In women’s play, American Irina Falconi lost, and before Roddick played, U.S. teenager Christina McHale went on the show court and fell 6-2, 6-3 to No. 25 Maria Kirilenko of Russia. /AP