Andy Murray and Kim Clijsters Picked a Brutal Year for a Comeback

Andy Murray’s reward for his stunning five-set comeback in the first round of the United States Open was a showdown Thursday night with one of the most talented young players in the world. Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 20-year-old from Canada, may be the sport’s next big thing, a player with speed, power, explosiveness and the deft touch of a natural shotmaker.

Auger-Aliassime is also the No. 15 seed here. In a year that Murray is staging a comeback from hip replacement surgery, the tennis pride of Britain would not normally face someone as good as Auger-Aliassime until the second week of the tournament, but the coronavirus pandemic shook up the field. And that, perhaps more than the physical constraints of an artificial hip, or life in restrictive conditions, or having to wash his hands a lot and wear a mask or any of the other inconveniences of life during coronavirus, is what makes mounting a comeback in this year of years especially difficult.

“A top, top young player,” Murray said of Auger-Aliassime after outlasting Yoshihito Nishioka, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4, in a 4-hour-39-minute match on Tuesday. “He’s a fantastic mover, good athlete. He’s developed fast.”

What Murray is about to face is a challenge that felled the former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters in the first official match of her pandemic-timed comeback, at 37, after her second retirement, her third child, and eight years removed from her last attempt at a return to the sport. In her first-round match Tuesday night, Clijsters lost to 21st-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. Alexandrova, a 25-year-old veteran with a powerful serve and more than $2 million in career winnings, was shaky early but then overpowered the powerful Clijsters, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/sports/tennis/andy-murray-kim-clijsters-us-open.html