Murray's quarter-finals streak ends with loss to Anderson

By Larry Fine NEW YORK (Reuters) - Andy Murray fell out of the U.S. Open under a barrage of aces and service winners off the racquet of towering South African Kevin Anderson in a match that ended two grand slam streaks. Anderson reached his first grand-slam quarter-finals with a 7-6(5)6-3 6-7(2) 7-6(0) victory at Louis Armstrong Stadium after a string of seven losses in fourth round matches at grand slams. Murray's loss snapped the Briton's run of having reached 18 consecutive grand slam quarter-finals. "That's obviously something that is disappointing to lose," said the third-seeded Scot, who smashed his racquet in frustration after losing the second set. "That's many years' work that's gone into building that sort of consistency. "Also to lose a match like that, that was over four hours, tough obviously after a couple of tough matches earlier in the tournament, as well. It's a hard one to lose, for sure." The defeat came at Louis Armstrong Stadium, the U.S. National Tennis Center's second court. "That court is a lot quicker than Ashe. I felt like I was on the back foot quite a lot. Wasn't able to play that offensively," said Murray. "But when you're playing against someone that has the game style that he does, you're always going to have to do a fair bit of defending, especially if he serves well." Murray lamented some lost chances against the 6-foot-8 (2.03m) South African, seeded 15th. "When you're playing against players that are at that level, you need to make them think and then give them a chance to get nervous," he said about how the match might have gone differently had he cashed in a couple of break points. "I felt like I had my opportunities there but didn't manage to capitalize on them." Murray, who has struggled with a head cold in the past week and battled back to victory in the second round from two sets down, did not blame fatigue. "I was able to fight as I wanted to through to the end of the match. So I don't think the amount of tennis I played played a part. "It was more playing against Kevin on the court of that speed, and with him serving as well as he does, it's a tricky match. It comes down to a few points in each set. He managed to get them today." (Editing by Greg Stutchbury)