U.S. Open: Andy Murray becomes first of the top five men’s players to exit

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Andy Murray, the Scotsman with good foot speed and a multilayered baseline game, has said more than once that if he could pick one major tournament to win it would be the U.S. Open and not his more-native Wimbledon.

If Murray is to win the Open, though, it will have to be another year. In Louis Armstrong Stadium, the increasingly cranky Murray, seemingly bothered by gusting winds and blowing trash and muttering like your crazy old uncle while massaging aches and pains real or imagined on his thigh, lower back and inner arm, became the highest-seeded player on the men’s side to be eliminated.

The fourth-seeded Murray lost, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3, to 25th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in the third round. This is Murray’s earliest exit from the Open since his first year of playing here in 2005 when he went out in the second round. He had been a finalist here in 2008.

Wawrinka, who was bellowing louder than an angry bull on many of his winners, will play 20th-seeded Sam Querrey in the fourth round. Neither Wawrinka, 25, nor Querrey has made it to a major tournament quarterfinal. Wawrinka did need a medical timeout during the match to have his right thigh treated.

-- Diane Pucin, reporting from New York