For nearly five hours on Day 2 of the 2020 US Open, all eyes were on 2012 champion Andy Murray in Arthur Ashe Stadium as he grinded his way to a dramatic comeback win from two sets down over world No. 49 Yoshihito Nishioka. In addition to TV viewers in the U.K. biting their nails into the evening, he also had a number of live spectators watching the grueling affair, live, right there in the stadium, including many of the three-time Grand Slam champion’s colleagues: Victoria Azarenka, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov, Johanna Konta, Naomi Osaka, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and Murray’s Round 2 opponent, Felix Auger-Aliassime, all caught parts of the wild match, courtside. (Tsitsipas, in particular, appeared to be quite enthralled.)
“I think it's good [to] support each other,” Murray told reporters after the match, when asked about the budding trend of players watching each other’s matches at this year’s fan-less tournament. “I just think it just helps a little bit if you're on the court and there's just a few people around. It's better than no one, that's for sure. Yeah, [it] helped me a little bit today.”
But this isn’t the first time Murray has played in front of some of his highly pedigreed peers.
“When I played in the [2012] Olympics against [Stan] Wawrinka in the first round in London, [Roger] Federer was sitting in his box for that match,” Murray recalled. “That was a bit weird. I don't know. It was just a bit weird looking up and seeing him sitting in the players box when, usually, you look up and see kind of coaches and family and whatnot. He was there in his Swiss track suit. He's obviously one of the best players of all time, and he was just sitting in the box. I played well in that match, so I don't want to say he put me off. Yeah, there's not anyone I wouldn't want to watch me, but you definitely feel certain players’ presence more than others.”
Murray would famously go on to defeat Federer a week later, in the tournament final, winning the first of his two Olympic gold medals.
