US Open 2015 : Big serving Kevin Anderson stuns Andy Murray

Not since the 2010 US Open has Murray crashed out so early in a Grand Slam event, a run of 18 consecutive quarter-finals ended by the lanky African, who fired 25 aces and 81 winners.

Murray had to play his best to win in four sets while the hype surrounding Kyrios’ recent antics must have been mentally draining. “Many years of hard work have gone into building that sort of consistency and to lose that is tough”.

“To lose a match like that”, Murray said, quietly.

It was Murray’s first match of this year’s tournament on the second show court, Louis Armstrong Stadium – the same arena that saw his last early Slam exit, against Stan Wawrinka in 2010.

Anderson reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final after seven prior fourth-round defeats.”It was the match of my life”, Anderson said. “This is a great accomplishment for me.”.

Konta, ranked 97th in the world, had defied all expectations to reach the fourth round, beating seeds Garbine Muguruza and Andrea Petkovic along the way, but Kvitova proved a step too far as the Czech won 7-5 6-3.

Reigning French Open champion Wawrinka ousted American Donald Youn1g 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The last Grand Slam of the year is the glitziest.

Making the final of the US Open would appear to be a long shot for Anderson though, as a win over Wawrinka would in all likelihood see him take on 17-time Grand Slam victor Roger Federer in the semi-finals. Young, 26, won the second set as the Swiss struggled with the forehand, Wawrinka smashing his racquet to the cement at one stage in frustration.

Young was the first player since Gilles Muller in 2008 to twice rally from two sets down at a US Open, having been 0-17 in such matches before this week. He served extremely well as he normally does, and that was it.

Murray has come from two sets down to win eight times in his career and he threatened a fightback after claiming the third set.

Isner extended his remarkable run of service holds at Flushing Meadows to 114 games, a streak stretching back to his third-round loss past year to Philipp Kohlschreiber, but still couldn’t manage to extract a set from the great Swiss. You get a lot of wind. In 429 tie-breakers played by Isner, he had never dropped one 7-0. “I wish I could play every tiebreak like that”. She definitely doesn’t give you many chances to be able to take control in a point.

“I think I served very well, which obviously helped me a lot in the fourth set, especially serving first and being up each game”, Anderson said.