US Open: Andy Murray blasts past Grigor Dimitrov to reach quarter-finals after hitting his fastest ever serve

Murray dropped just five games to win 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 and book his place in the last-eight

Andy Murray dropped just five games in his victory over Grigor Dimitrov (Getty)

If one of the keys to winning Grand Slam titles is to avoid expending unnecessary energy en route to the latter stages, Andy Murray’s US Open challenge is back on track after a thumping 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory here over Grigor Dimitrov.

The speed with which Murray closed out victory over the 24-year-old Bulgarian was underlined when he hit the fastest serve of his career. The thunderous ace which Murray hit to win the first set was timed at 141mph, which was 3mph quicker than his previous best, recorded here eight years ago against Jurgen Melzer.

In earning a quarter-final meeting with Kei Nishikori, Murray put behind him the memory of his laboured performance in the previous round against Paolo Lorenzi. Having made 63 unforced errors against the veteran Italian, Murray made just 23 against Dimitrov, who had won his previous meeting with the Scot and beaten him in the Wimbledon quarter-finals two years ago.

In an echo of Kyle Edmund’s defeat by Novak Djokovic the previous evening, Dimitrov appeared to be overwhelmed by playing a night match in the biggest stadium in tennis.

“Once I got up in the score, I wasn’t giving him any free points,” Murray said afterwards. “I could sense it was getting tough for him. I just wanted to keep my foot on the gas, which I didn’t really do the other day.

“That was the one thing that I wasn’t happy with against Lorenzi. When I did win a first set that was tight and in which I didn’t play my best, I kind of let him back into the match after I got a break early in the second set.

“I wanted to make sure today that if I got ahead, I stayed on top of him, didn’t have any dip in concentration or my level, and stuck to my tactics that were working well.”

He added: “That’s the beauty of an individual sport. Just because you play badly a couple of days ago didn’t mean I was going to play badly tonight. My best tennis is in there. Not every day do you play your best. When you don’t play your best and win, it’s a really positive thing.”

Murray had not been sleeping well since arriving in New York, but after sleeping for 12 hours straight on Sunday night was clearly in excellent shape. “It was a very quick match, one where I played very well and got a little bit of confidence back after not playing well a couple days ago,” he said.

This was Murray’s 26th victory in the 27 matches he has played since losing to Novak Djokovic in the French Open final three months ago and his 27th successive victory over an opponent ranked outside the world’s top 20.

Murray has reached the last eight in 22 out of his last 23 grand slams (Getty)

Playing in the fourth round of his 23rd Grand Slam tournament in succession, Murray was on his game from the start. The Scot served consistently and broke Dimitrov seven times, punishing the Bulgarian’s erratic serves with some venomous returns. Dimitrov’s coach, Dani Vallverdu, was a long-time member of Murray’s entourage, but if he was able to give any insights into how to trouble the Scot, his new charge was apparently unable to take advantage of them.

It was Labor Day here and Murray got to work immediately in the first match of the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the Scot now looks certain to play all his matches this year.

Having saved two break points in the opening game, Murray broke in the fourth after Dimitrov netted what should have been a routine smash. Murray won eight games in a row until Dimitrov, having changed to a racket with tighter strings, broke serve for the only time. As Murray broke back in the following game Dimitrov took a wild kick at a ball in frustration and barely made contact. It was one of those nights for the world No 24.

With Murray leading by two sets to love you did not need to turn to the record books to rate the Scot an all but certain winner, but the statistics emphasised the point: Dimitrov had never won a match from two sets down, while Murray had won 124 Grand Slam matches in succession after taking the first two sets.

Murray celebrates his fourth round victory over Dimitrov (Getty)

When Dimitrov served on break point in the first game of the third set he broke a string and by the time he was 4-0 down he was looking increasingly dispirited. The end came when he missed a forehand on Murray’s third match point just after the clock had passed the two-hour mark.

“I played very well,” Murray said afterwards. “Tactically I played a very good match. I don’t think I made many mistakes there. I kept good concentration throughout. I don’t think Grigor played his best, but I didn’t really give him a chance to get into the match.”

Dimitrov said he had “run out of fuel both physically and mentally” but added: “Andy right now is the best player out there.”

Dimitrov's resurgence at Flushing Meadows came to an end at the hands of Murray (Getty)

Murray confirmed that the 141mph serve was the fastest he had ever hit but wondered whether the speed gun had recorded it correctly, given that it was several miles per hour faster than any of his other serves. “It was lucky,” he said. “I only did it once and don’t expect to do it again.”

Nishikori, who beat Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, played his only Grand Slam final here two years ago, when he was beaten by Marin Cilic, but has lost seven of his previous eight meetings with Murray, most recently in the semi-finals of last month’s Olympic tournament.

“I played a really good match against him when we played a few weeks ago,” Murray said. “I’m aware I’ll need to do that again in a couple days if I want to beat him because he’s one of the best players in the world and plays extremely well on hard courts.”