The Gong That Disrupted The Andy Murray – Kei Nishikori US Open QF Match [Video]

by Staff | September 7th, 2016, 8:35 pm
  • 11 Comments

The gong heard round the tennis world! That’s what may or may not have sent Andy Murray over the edge during his US Open quarterfinal match against Kei Nishikori.

Murray led two sets to one at 1-1 with Nishikori serving down break point at 30-40, a malfunction in the audio board produced a gong sound disrupting play. And gong-gate was born!

The point in progress when the intrusion took place had to be replayed. Murray subsequently lost the point and dropped seven straight games, and eventually the match!


“Wayne McKewen told me that it happened four times during the match that the speakers had gone off like that,” Murray said of the ensuing argument. “I had only heard it one time before, which was on set point in the second set. That was it.”

Had the sound not gone off, maybe Murray gets the break? That’s debatable. But it did seemed to bother Murray more than Nishikori.

“My concentration went off,” Nishikori said. “I don’t know what’s the reason, but for sure they have to stop that.”

And the US Open did stop it. In a statement, the USTA explained the noise:

“One of the three digital audio sound processors in Arthur Ashe Stadium malfunctioned early in the fourth set of the Kei Nishikori – Andy Murray match. The malfunctioning unit is located at the court level. The three processors are linked, and work as a single unit. The malfunctioning unit could not be taken off-line without interrupting play. The malfunctioning unit will be replaced between the day and evening sessions. The replacement of the unit, which requires the shutting down and then re-booting of the system, can take up to thirty minutes.”


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11 Comments for The Gong That Disrupted The Andy Murray – Kei Nishikori US Open QF Match [Video]

chrisford1 Says:

A sound, or a little feather floating through the air….Melting down from a distraction is a mental thing. Novak and Rafa rarely do so.

September 8th, 2016 at 12:29 am


AndyMira Says:

@CF1..In your honest opinion don’t you think the last lost that Rafa suffered not from mental thing?When he lead 4-3 30-0 in the 5th set,and a few games later on TB,when they tied 6-6,he missed the easy FH that he rarely missed before?Isn’t that the sign of lack of mental strength?And what about the entire year last year when he suffered all those painful losses?None of them related to mental thing?

September 8th, 2016 at 1:13 am


Wog Boy Says:

AM,
You can’t compare those two, Rafa is in physical decline, when you know that you can’t chase the balls you use to, that you can’t last as long as you use to, that your movement is restricted then mental thing kicks in, so primarily cause is physical not mental, with Andy it was always mental meltdown, he is physically in his prime.
I’ll repeat again, old Rafa would dismiss Lucas in three easy sets, this is 80% at best of old Rafa, and he is not getting any younger and matches are not getting any eaisier.

September 8th, 2016 at 1:28 am


AndyMira Says:

Oh Ok WB…Understood your reason..

September 8th, 2016 at 1:36 am


Van Persie Says:

Ok, get it now. I did not see the entire match. Kei was saved by the Gong. Congrats to Kei!

September 8th, 2016 at 3:03 am


chrisford1 Says:

Andy – I was going to respond but Wog Boy said it better and nailed how physical decline, not weak focus in Rafa’s care, derails execution and precision. All the trained, trained, and retrained muscles and reactions are based on a body performing at a certain physical level. Rafa will have to adjust. He is struggling with how to make his new body with some things working less well than in his great years – into a winner again.
Fed struggled with the same aging, increased injury problem in 2013 and 2016. He still had a couple of really nice years in between. Almost won Wimbledon again in 2014.
Roger and Rafa are still so good that they are solid Top 10 players, bettr than 98% of the guys on Tour, even if they are not winning the “Big Ones” anymore.

Andy though – so many times he was at The Verge of Victory – only to lose it on negativity, or beaten by himself and the distress and loss of focus of a distraction. Like from an electronic malfunction gong sound, Novak looking like he was about to retire in a match for medical reasons but didn’t…… by a bird high in the sky dropping a feather in front of him, a line call. Lendl has work left to do.

September 8th, 2016 at 5:10 am


RZ Says:

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this. It’s so ridiculous that this would have caused Andy to lose focus. I would understand it more if he were losing at that point, but he was ahead.

September 8th, 2016 at 10:50 am


Margot Says:

Indeedy RZ it’s quite some time since Andy snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, but hey ho….

September 8th, 2016 at 11:16 am


AndyMira Says:

CF1…Thank you for your explanation..You and WB made everything more clearer to me now..

RZ…Once again sorry everything turned out like this..Yeah,it’s ridiculous..and Andy should known better than to react to the simple things like that and jeopardize his chances..He’s in QF after all..But then things like this happened,better not to think too much about it okay?And hope that Andy will take this latest meltdown seriously and try to fix it..he still got time to change..Hope Lendl has one or two magic cards left in his hands..

September 8th, 2016 at 11:44 am


J-Kath Says:

To some degree there some similarities between Andy and Rafa: they both have “set-in-stone” habits.

Rafa’s fidgetting with his person before each serve; the precise positioning of the water bottles; likes more than the accepted time to serve and often breaks the time rule. Rafa also looks at his group quite often to check for responses.

Andy’s fixation(s)while different are equally ingrained.

Andy mutters away to himself. He hates a rogue camera flash; people moving to/from their seats; pigeon resting on a flag; airplane somewhat low in the sky; birds, bees, butterflies, “gong”, visiting the court and people talking too much when he begins to serve.

They created these patterns themselves and it is who they are as tennis players and will never really change.

Apologies to Rafa’s fans if they disagree. If Margot, RZ and DA disagree I’m sure they’ll say so.

September 8th, 2016 at 12:52 pm


Van Persie Says:

Yes, J-Kath, you are right. Rafa has only the advantage, that his fixations are more self oriented and he can control them better.

September 8th, 2016 at 1:13 pm

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