Stanislas Wawrinka Stuns Andy Murray

Andy Murray's dreams of lifting his maiden Grand Slam title in New York were left in tatters last night as he crashed out in the third round to Swiss number two Stanislas Wawrinka.

The Scot had enjoyed a good American hard court season as he defended his Toronto Masters crown, as well as getting to the final in L.A., and came into Flushing Meadows in good form and one of the favourites.

But Murray suffered a dramatic slump in the middle of the match, pair that with growing frustration and anger and the fourth seed imploded leaving Wawrinka to wrap up the match in four dramatic sets.

It was the Swiss player who made the better start as he broke early and was left serving for the set at 5-3. But Wawrinka was unable to get the job done as Murray broke back to get the set back on serve.

As both players stood firm a tie break was needed to decide the destination of the opening set, a break that Murray dominated and won to take the set.

And into the second it was Murray's turn to take an early break and open up a 3-0 lead, the momentum was now well and truly in favour of the Scot and the challenge from Wawrinka was expected to just melt away.

But the Swiss number two had no intentions of going without a fight as he broke back to level the set. But Murray broke again and was left to serve out the set for a string lead.

But Wawrinka showed his fighting qualities once again as he broke Murray as he served for the set to once again level and set up another tie break. Murray looked a little shaken in the break and Wawrinka pounced to take the breaker 7-4 and the second set.

When the pair sat down at the end of the second set they had already played 2hrs and 18 mins for just two sets. Wawrinka dropped his opening service game of the third set as Murray tried to get the momentum back.

But his advantage didn't last long as Wawrinka won four games on the bounce as Murray's game began to disintegrate and was getting more and more frustrated.

Both players took treatment in the third set for thigh issues, however Wawrinka took a full medical time out in the sixth game of the third. When he returned to court his thigh was heavily strapped but this didn't seem to trouble the twenty fifth seed as he went on to take the third set and just edge ahead.

Into the fourth and the first four games went with serve until Wawrinka broke in the fifth, only the to let his advantage go when Murray broke back immediately.

By the fourth Murray appeared to have no movement in his legs and he called the trainer out a second time to look at a problem that he was having with his neck.

But he still looked in trouble when he returned to court as he couldn't fend off more break points and Wawrinka once again had the advantage. And this time Murray had no answer as Wawrinka wrapped up a 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 6-3 four minutes shy of four hours.

Speaking to the BBC after the match Wawrinka said: "I think all my game was pretty good, it was one of my best matches for sure. I was very aggressive. I was doing everything really good so I'm very happy.

"I think at the end of the first set I was playing a little bit too defensive. That's what I started to change in the second and third and fourth sets, to stay aggressive, even if he's coming, even if he's putting a lot of pressure.

"But I have the feeling he was a little bit injured, he was not feeling OK, so I was trying to stay aggressive and to make him run a lot and I think I did pretty well."

Wawrinka will now face big hitting American Sam Querrey as he had a much more straight forward victory over Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Querrey didn't drop his serve on the way to a 6-3 6-4 6-4 and is just one of two American's left in the draw.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw