{"id":121471,"date":"2025-09-07T20:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/121471\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T20:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:22:13","slug":"a-u-s-open-final-a-tornado-and-grand-slam-relief-for-andy-murray-against-novak-djokovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/121471\/","title":{"rendered":"A U.S. Open final, a tornado and Grand Slam relief for Andy Murray against Novak Djokovic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open men\u2019s final<\/a> featuring Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz<\/p>\n

This article is part of our New York Court Classics<\/a> series, a special feature produced by The Athletic looking back at classic U.S. Open performances, iconic athletes and timeless moments.<\/p>\n

FLUSHING, N.Y. \u2014 The 2012 U.S. Open men\u2019s final between Novak Djokovic<\/a> and Andy Murray<\/a> was strange and consequential.<\/p>\n

Murray ended his country\u2019s 76-year wait for a male Grand Slam<\/a> champion by winning the joint longest final in tournament history. It was played in the gusty, swirling aftermath of a tornado that had ripped through Queens, forcing the match to be played on a Monday instead of a Sunday.<\/p>\n

When it was over, Murray lifted his first major title after losing his first four Grand Slam finals. The match was so up and down that it was not clear which way it might go until the very end, typified by a 54-shot rally played in a hostile wind that had defined both players\u2019 matches en route to the final. During Murray\u2019s semifinal against Czech player Tom\u00e1\u0161 Berdych, the wind blew a chair onto the court during one point and blew Murray\u2019s cap off his head during another; Djokovic\u2019s semifinal against David Ferrer of Spain was abandoned because of a tornado warning. It did not resume until the second Sunday of the tournament, pushing the final back to Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never happened to me or I don\u2019t think to any other player before,\u201d Djokovic said of the tornado warning in a news conference at this year\u2019s U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember that year was super, super windy and difficult just to play overall for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rivalry between Murray and Djokovic defined the atmosphere as much as the wind did. Born a week apart, they first played each other when they were 11. In September 2012, they were both 25. Djokovic was the world No. 1 and had five majors to his name; Murray was the world No. 4 and had won one set in his four Grand Slam finals, one of which had been a straight-sets thrashing by Djokovic.<\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s closeness was becoming a national obsession, as Great Britain hoped desperately for a first male Grand Slam champion since Fred Perry in 1936. As the U.S. Open rolled around, memories of Murray\u2019s closest defeat to date were fresh in the nation\u2019s mind. After losing in the final to Roger Federer, he had won many hearts and minds with an emotional post-match speech. Some of the British public still perceived Murray as dour and moody, but more and more were swept up in this compelling story of a tennis mortal doing everything in his power to get past the three demigods of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic.<\/p>\n

Murray had injected some self-belief just ahead of New York by beating Federer on Wimbledon\u2019s Centre Court in the 2012 Olympic final, but his rivalry with Djokovic was deeper than winning his first major.<\/p>\n

Brad Gilbert, who coached Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Coco Gauff to U.S. Open titles and worked with the Scot in 2006, remembers Murray being clear about his man to beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him about all these players, and he would just kind of look at me,\u201d Gilbert said in a phone interview this week. \u201cWhen I brought up Djokovic, he said, \u2018Nothing else matters. That\u2019s the guy.\u2019 And that even included Federer and Nadal, who were already there.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2012, Murray\u2019s coach was Ivan Lendl. Like Murray, Lendl lost his first four Grand Slam finals, and his no-nonsense style suited the discerning, sometimes contrarian Murray. Ahead of his Australian Open semifinal against Djokovic that January, Lendl told Murray: \u201cYou\u2019ll win, but you\u2019re going to have to go through a lot of pain to get there, so be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray actually lost a close-to-five-hour marathon 7-5 in the fifth set, but Lendl\u2019s prediction uncannily summed up the U.S. Open final that Murray won eight months later. \u201cA lot of pain\u201d still doesn\u2019t come close to how excruciating the 7-6(10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Djokovic would be.<\/p>\n

Despite Lendl and the Olympic win, Murray\u2019s major record left him questioning himself going into the final. \u201cI was still doubting myself right up to a few minutes before going on to play the match,\u201d he said in his post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re thinking, \u2018Are you going to be able to do this?\u2019 \u2026 The matches against him are always going to hurt. It\u2019s something I have never done before. I have been in this position many times and not managed to get through. So there are a lot of things you\u2019re thinking about before you go out on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray, who was not available for interview for this story, told a few reporters in 2022: \u201cI remember being in the locker room on my own and feeling unbelievably nervous and feeling pretty lonely and kind of feeling a lot of pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others were more optimistic. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I really just felt like he was going to win,\u201d said Annabel Croft, the former British No. 1 who was covering the match for Sky Sports, in an interview last week.<\/p>\n

Something did feel a little different about this final in the early stages. Murray settled quickly, breaking in the first game, but then Djokovic immediately broke him back. It was time to strap in: Murray\u2019s matches tended to be nerve-shredders, and it already felt like this one was heading that way, even as Murray mostly matched the world No. 1 shot for shot, playing out a 54-shot rally in the sixth game.<\/p>\n

Given the wind, the level of tennis was extraordinary. Murray and Djokovic were at the vanguard of tennis in 2012, which at that point was a game of crafty baseline attrition and relentless testing of each other\u2019s groundstrokes. As the match wore on, and the players\u2019 physicality started to fray, there were more cat-and-mouse points in the front of the court, featuring drop shots, rushes to the net and increasingly absurd angles.<\/p>\n

Such a set ended as it was always destined to do: with a 24-minute tiebreak, longer than the legendary John McEnroe vs. Bj\u00f6rn Borg one from the 1980 Wimbledon final, but with 22 points played compared with 34. The scoreline was 12-10 in Murray\u2019s favor, as he won a succession of 30-shot baseline rallies and converted his sixth set point. His roar of \u201ccome on\u201d was so loud it might have been heard in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

In a flash of clairvoyance, one-time Murray coach Mark Petchey said on air that it was \u201cunthinkable we will have to watch another four sets of this,\u201d and the second was similarly dramatic. Murray went 4-0 up before being reeled back to 5-5, but he stole two games in a row to take a two-set lead. As throughout his career, 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic was struggling with the wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo sides of the court with two different conditions,\u201d he said in a news conference afterward. \u201cPlaying down the wind and against the wind is a huge advantage or disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to make a lot of improvisation. We had to try to stay in there and stay focused and be in balance, and the wind was doing everything to keep us out of balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

A straight-sets win felt too good to be true, for Murray and for the British public watching at home where midnight was approaching. Djokovic duly rebounded to take the next two sets.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Overend had been the BBC\u2019s tennis correspondent since 2003. He had been there for every Murray near miss and now found himself commentating for the nation on what looked set to be the most painful of them all. \u201cBroadcasting from somewhere back to the U.K., you\u2019re always working in British time,\u201d he said in an interview this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re at around 1:30 a.m. when Djokovic levels the match. At that point, I\u2019m getting so many messages saying, \u2018Right, turning off now, speak in the morning, what a shame for Murray, five sets Djokovic.\u2019 There was just a feeling of inevitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray suspects that had he not left the court for a bathroom break before the fifth set, he would have lost. He took himself to a cubicle near the players\u2019 entrance to Arthur Ashe Stadium. \u201cIt is small, not much more than a toilet, a sink and a mirror. I was thinking: \u2018Why do I keep losing these finals? Do I lack something? How on earth did I squander a two-set lead?\u2019\u201d Murray told The Times of London in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Andy Murray\u2019s 2012 U.S. Open final against Novak Djokovic is the joint longest in tournament history. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I started talking. Out loud. \u2018You are not losing this match,\u2019 I said to myself. \u2018You are not losing this match.\u2019 I started out a little tentative, but my voice got louder. \u2018You are not going to let this one slip. This is your time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray broke immediately at the start of the fifth set, which both players said was crucial afterwards, and then broke again for 3-0. He lost one of the breaks but got it back to be in a position to serve for the match up 5-2. Djokovic called the trainer for cramps, adding to the drama and suspense of it. After a delay in which he spent practising serves, Murray had three championship points at 40-0, and when Djokovic sent a forehand long on the second, he was a Grand Slam champion at last. He had done it the hard way, finally putting away a player as durable as a tennis Terminator.<\/p>\n

It was such an emotional victory that even some reporters were said to be crying in the press seats. \u201cThat was the time when my voice cracked \u2014 that one, not Wimbledon the following year,\u201d Overend said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will always remember 2012 for the final game. We\u2019re right at the top of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, so behind the back row of spectators. Every spectator that I could see got up to their feet. The match is still going, but they know he\u2019s going to do it. I remember saying on the radio, \u2018Well, they might as well stay standing because he\u2019s going to do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most unique thing about Andy is he had this amazing ability to win matches,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cAnd you looked at the stats, like, \u2018How\u2019s he doing it?\u2019 He knew how to win. That\u2019s a very underrated quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray, dazed in the immediate aftermath of the victory, faffed around trying to find a sponsor\u2019s watch in his bag. He was congratulated by Sean Connery and Sir Alex Ferguson, who had gate-crashed his news conference a couple of days earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking a lot just now,\u201d he said in the one after the win. \u201cI\u2019m thinking a lot about a lot of different things. It\u2019s hard to explain. It\u2019s been a long, long journey. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s disbelief or whatever. I\u2019m very, very happy on the inside; I\u2019m sorry if I\u2019m not showing it as you would like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overend, waiting to interview Murray, saw Lendl \u2014 famously unexpressive \u2014 give his player a quick hug before disappearing, seemingly into the night. Overend called out his congratulations to the departing coach, who called back: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t me, it was him.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson \/ The Athletic \/ Darron Cummings, Cameron Spencer, Stan Honda \/ Getty Images;\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York Court Classics series is presented by Ralph Lauren.<\/p>\n

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the U.S. Open men\u2019s final featuring Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-121471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}