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  • Houdini Muller fights back from the brink yet again

    9/1/08 1:44 PM | David Cox
    - In terms of sheer epic contests, Muller and Almagro raised the bar to a whole new level for this year's US Open after a gripping 4 hour battle on the grandstand arena

    Muller does not list escapology as one of his hobbies but even the great Houdini would have to admire the exploits of the man from Luxembourg over the past few days. Until this week, his finest US Open memory had been of defeating Andy Roddick in straight sets in the opening round of the 2005 tournament on the Arthur Ashe court. It's hard to top that but Muller may have just done so after coming from 2 sets to love down again to oust 18th seed Nicholas Almagro 6-7(3), 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6), 7-5

    Both players have towering serves and it proved to be an ace-fest. For fans of the shorter rallies this was a must-see match. In total both men clocked up 62 unreturnables (Muller contributing 38, not too far short of the ace world record). There were just 2 breaks in the entire match

    Almagro is one of the most stylish players out there with an explosive forehand and a dreamy single-handed backhand. That was the difference for 2 sets, when it came to the baseline rallies there was only going to be one winner.

    However as Karlovic will tell you, a huge serve can cancel out an awful lot of other shortcomings in tennis and Muller continued to rain down bombs in set 3, saving break points at 4-4 before blasting his way through the tiebreak to reduce the deficit. At this stage in the match with Haas, even though he was still 2 sets to 1 down you sensed that the momentum was irreversably with Muller, so quickly did the German's head go down

    Not so with Almagro. The fiery Spaniard was determined to reach the last 16 and once more he had all the chances. Muller found himself 2 match points down at 4-5 but dug deep to save both. The resulting tiebreak was desperately close but Muller's serve once more gave him a slight edge and we were into a 5th set

    With the tension mounting, chances came and went. Muller looked sure to have secured the breakthrough when he held 3 break points at 4-3 but somehow failed to convert. At 5-4 he had match point but with it almost in his grasp, he pushed a slice wide

    Such a contest really deserved a final set tiebreak but the pressure was too great for Almagro and on his 2nd match point at 6-5 he punched a decisive volley away for one of the finest moments of his career

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