Former world's no.1 and tennis great Pete Sampras thinks it will be hard for everybody to dethrone world's no.2 Andy Murray as the reigning US Open champion.
Sampras, who collected five of his 14 Grand Slam championship at the US Open during his tennis career, said in an interview with ESPN that Murray is undoubtedly the man to beat in next month's Grand Slam competition in Queens, New York.
"This was Andy's time at Wimbledon. It was Andy's event to go and get and he did it. He's definitely the man to beat at the US Open. I think the biggest thing for me is Murray in the past 12 months has just stepped up." said Sampras, who was considered the greatest tennis player of all-time before Roger Federer eventually took that title.
Coming off a breakthrough victory at the 2013 Wimbledon Open, Murray enters the hard-court season brimming with confidence as he attempts to upend rival Novak Djokovic as the world's no.1 player on the ATP ranking.
Murray is still trailing Djokovic by 3,000 points but it would be difficult for the Serb to keep the no.1 ranking because of a number of tourneys he needs to defend, particularly in this coming hard-court season.
After winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, Murray struggled a little bit on the hard court last year but he picked it up at the right tournament and at the right time as he went on to win his first Grand Slam title at the US Open.
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