Andy Murray ready for Auger-Aliassime at the net and not in the stands

Canadian watched Murray at US Open in 2011
‘He’s a great champion. I’ll be expecting the best from him’

Félix Auger-Aliassime was a skinny kid down from Canada on a trip to New York nine years ago when he scored some tickets for a night match on the centre court at Flushing Meadows and saw Andy Murray thrash Feliciano López in the third round on his way to the semi-finals of the US Open.

Now a fully-grown and exciting professional, Auger-Aliassime will have to narrow his wide-eyed wonder a little when he looks across the net at Murray on Thursday in the second round of the 2020 edition of the championships. And, for all his cool, he will hope he has the game to handle the sort of relentless pressure the Scot brought to bear on the bewildered Yoshihito Nishioka over five sets on Tuesday evening.