How much of John Isner has been left on Court 18 at Wimbledon after his extraordinary marathon against Nicolas Mahut? How much of Andy Murray's shocking defeat at the hands of Stan Wawrinka was due to mental frailty and how much to physical injury?
The questions remained unanswered as the dust settled on a day of dying winds and cloudless skies at Flushing Meadows – a day when Sam Querrey advanced to the fourth round accompanied by no less than five Spaniards in his half of the draw.
Isner went down, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-4, to the experienced Russian Mikhail Youzhny despite producing 33 aces, a respectable first- serve percentage of 66 and hitting 63 winners. But all this was countered with 61 unforced errors and an inability to come up with the big shots when it mattered.
When asked about Wimbledon, he replied: "The way I was feeling and playing in Cincinnati, I felt personally that it was behind me. But just when everything was coming along, I hurt my foot."
As a result, Isner only had two days' practice coming into the U.S. Open, and he was not sure how much that contributed to his somewhat muted performance on Arthur Ashe, where he was appearing for the first time at night.
"It's hard to say," he said. "I didn't feel out of breath or anything, but you know I just didn't have the pop I needed on my shots. I wasn't able to get to balls I thought I should have."
Isner gave Youzhny full credit for that. "He sees my serve pretty well – a lot better than 99 percent of the players out there."
And Isner wasn't underestimating the Russian's pedigree. Youzhny's best effort in a Grand Slam was reaching the semifinals in New York in 2006, and he has only five ATP titles to his name. Yet, oddly, no one could question his big match credentials. They do not come bigger than playing the fifth rubber of a Davis Cup final, as he did for Russia in front of 15,000 screaming Parisians in 2002, and fighting back from two sets down against Paul-Henri Mathieuto win the Cup against France. Soccer star Thierry Henry was in to audience that day, and he was agape.
Murray lost to Wawrinka, the Swiss who shared the Olympic doubles gold with Roger Federer in Beijing, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3. It was a match that left many experts scratching their heads, not exactly in disbelief, because Wawrinka played one of the best matches of his career, but rather in their inability to assess Murray's performance.
"Was he hurt?" asked Fred Stolle, the U.S. champion at Forest Hills in 1966. "At times he wasn't moving for the ball at all. And yet he had come back so well in the first set and was playing some really positive tennis."
The bare bones of the match in front of a packed crowd on Louis Armstrong saw Murray fight back from 3-5 in the first set and go on to dominate the tiebreak. When the Scot led 3-0 in the second, he was cruising and even a break back didn't seem to faze him, because he broke Wawrinka again and served for the set at 5-3. But at 30-all, he netted a tame forehand and then allowed the Swiss to get in on him, forcing an error with a good volley.
Errors gave Wawrinka the edge in the second breaker, which he took 7-4, but Murray still seemed to have some life in him when he broke at the start of the third. It didn't last, because Murray retreated five yards behind his baseline instead of pressuring an opponent who had his thigh strapped halfway through the set.
At the start of the fourth, it was Murray's turn to have treatment and, once again, serves were swapped. A wondrous, backspun drop shot contributed to Wawrinka's making the decisive breakthrough in the fifth game, and although Murray kept him at bay with some great cross-court backhands, the revival was too late. Wawrinka was simply playing too well.
The experts were not the only ones struggling for answers after this strange match had finished. So was Murray.
"In the third and fourth sets, I was struggling physically, and that hasn't happened in a very long time," said Murray, who had put himself through another rigorous training stint in Miami before winning Toronto last month. "I have worked very hard to give myself a chance of winning tournaments, so I got disappointed. I'm sorry that happens. I think it happens to everyone at different points in life. But I have no idea why. I just came off court 20 minutes ago. I lost the match to a better player today. That's it."
It isn't quite, because the inquest in Britain will continue for some time.
No need for soul searching in the Spanish camp. Spain, probably in the form of Rafael Nadal, is guaranteed a semifinalist because this tennis-crazy nation has all four players in the top quarter. Nadal sent Gilles Simon off to see his newborn son in Paris by beating the distracted Frenchman in straight sets; Ryan Harrison's conqueror, Sergiy Stakhovsky, defaulted through injury against Feliciano Lopez; Fernando Verdasco beat off the challenge of David Nalbandian to win in four; and David Ferrer defeated yet another Spaniard, Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
And that was not all. In the bottom section of that half, Tommy Robredo was two sets to one up when Michael Llodra of France defaulted. Robredo will now play Youzhny.
Meanwhile, Querrey was making sure Spaniards did not have it all their way by serving Nicolas Almagro off the Louis Armstrong Stadium court, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Before Querrey knew that Wawrinka would be his next opponent, he was asked about a possible match-up. "That will be a tough one, if it's Stan," he replied. "He hits so big from both sides. If he gets hot, he can beat anyone."
As Murray was about to find out.
