Alejandro Davidovich Fokina showed few signs of nerves on Friday when he booked a place in the fourth round on his US Open debut.

The 21-year-old played with great assurance to beat Cameron Norrie 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in two hours and 43 minutes for his best performance at a Grand Slam championship. He now plays fifth seed Alexander Zverev or No. 32 seed Adrian Mannarino.

Davidovich Fokina, who admitted he learned a lot from hitting with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Marbella during the five-month ATP Tour suspension, won eight straight games against Norrie from 1-2 in the third set to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set.

The World No. 99 beat Dennis Novak in the first round and No. 24 seed Hubert Hurkacz in the second round at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York, having lost in the first round of qualifying at the Western & Southern Open.

Andy Murray didn’t return to competitive tennis for a paycheck or a nostalgia tour. Like everyone competing at this year’s US Open, he wanted to leave with the trophy.

It won’t happen this year after the 2012 champion fell in straight sets on Thursday to No. 15 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime. But unlike his most recent Grand Slam singles outing at last year’s Australian Open, a tearful opening-round defeat to Roberto Bautista Agut that left uncertainty about whether he’d compete again, Murray will depart New York hungry for more Grand Slam glory.

“That’s going to be extremely difficult to do. It was hard enough when I had two normal hips,” Murray said. “But I’ll keep trying. Why not? Why shouldn’t I try my hardest to do that? And if I don’t, that’s all right. But I might as well shoot for the stars. I’m trying my best to get the most out of what my body gives me now.”

There are plenty of positives for Murray to take from his two weeks at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. He defeated Alexander Zverev at the Western & Southern Open for his first win over a player in the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Rankings since 2017 Roland Garros. On Tuesday, he rallied from two sets down and saved a match point to defeat Yoshihito Nishioka after four hours and 39 minutes.

But as Murray knows, tournaments aren’t won with a single performance. The mental and physical toll of his two milestone wins in New York proved too much and he followed them up with convincing losses. Murray said he’s eager to work on maintaining high levels of play throughout an entire match and building up stamina to bounce back after long battles as he turns his attention to competing on clay.

“I don’t want to lose in straight sets anywhere and certainly not in Grand Slams.” Murray said. “What I need to do is look at what happened the past couple of weeks, look at the things in my game that weren’t as I would have liked, and then physically look at what I can do to improve so that if I’m in that situation again in a few weeks’ time, I deal with it better.

“But all you can do is try and keep improving from where you are. I’m not in the same position that I was three years ago, when I was in the latter stages of most of the events I was playing… I’m 115 in the rankings and my game reflects that. So I’ll need to get better if I want to move up the rankings and be more competitive.”

Read More: Murray On New York Return: ‘I Made It Back’

Murray is also enjoying the chance to play against a new generation of players for the first time. Auger-Aliassime spoke with reverence about sitting in the stands as a child and watching Murray compete at the 2011 US Open. But rather than feel his age, the Brit views cross-generation battles as a testament to his ability to still play world-class tennis after 15 years on Tour.

“It’s nice because it shows that you’ve had a long career. I was a bit sad that I missed playing against Agassi and Sampras,” Murray said. “I came along a couple of years too late. I would have liked to have the opportunity to do that because those are guys you watch on TV when you’re growing up.

“Going on the court against a young player, you feel like you go on with the experience of having been in that situation more times. The only downside is they might have been watching you play for a number of years, so they know your game probably a bit better than you know them… I don’t feel old or anything like that. I’m happy that I get the opportunity to play against the younger guys coming through.”

When Stefanos Tsitsipas walked onto the court inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday evening, he was struck by a plaque on the wall. It was a Billie Jean King quote stating, “pressure is a privilege”.

“I found this very special, this message. It’s very deep,” Tsitsipas said. “Playing on Arthur Ashe was an amazing experience. I think it would have been even better if there were people watching and it would create a mesmerising atmosphere and [be] more intense, that’s for sure. Despite that I still felt special playing on the court.”

The moment was a long time coming for the Greek star. When he was eight, he watched from afar as Marcos Baghdatis battled Andre Agassi for five scintillating sets on the same court in the 2006 second round.

“My hero [is] Marcos and [he is] now my best friend, which is quite special. He lost in five sets, but the effort, the adrenaline, the crowd atmosphere, you had everything in that match and there was drama,” Tsitsipas said. “I think for Marcos, facing his idol was quite special.”

Tsitsipas also remembers watching Novak Djokovic play Juan Martin del Potro in the final two years ago, Stan Wawrinka lifting the trophy in 2016 and many of Serena Williams’ matches.

“I was still very young and had big dreams of playing there one day,” he said.

The first match Tsitsipas watched inside the stadium in person was the 2015 semi-final between Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. He was in New York to compete in the US Open boys’ singles event.

 

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Night session at the #ArthurAshe!

A post shared by Stefanos Tsitsipas (@stefanostsitsipas98) on Sep 11, 2015 at 6:32pm PDT

The 22-year-old defeated Maxime Cressy in straight sets to reach the third round, but it was not in front of the thousands of fans that would usually pack the stadium if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Tsitsipas will play his third-round match on Friday inside Louis Armstrong Stadium against 27th seed Borna Coric.