Building of a champion

Too exhausted to jump up and down or run over to the stands the way some newly crowned champions do, Andy Murray dropped his racket to the court, crouched down gingerly and covered his mouth with his hands.

A few minutes later, he took off his shoes, sat in his chair on the sideline, leaned his head back and looked into the dark New York sky.

What a relief! The 25-year-old Scotsman won the US Open to earn the Grand Slam title that had eluded him the four previous times he got this close. It took six minutes short of five hours on a windblown Monday night certainly not made for tennis. If it seemed like longer, well, there are some pretty good reasons for that.