That one point never arrived as Nadal played his most brilliant tennis of the evening: forehand winner, service winner, backhand winner, ace and a strong serve to finish off the game.
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When Wawrinka got an opening, he would invariably crush a backhand winner down the line.
That's a little lazy from Murray, dabbing an attempted drop-shot wide, but he then chases down a lob before punching home a backhand winner.
Nadal misjudges a low forehand at the net to make it 30-30 and Murray then races in to thread a backhand winner up the line for 30-40 and break point .
Murray was saving his best for the key moments, and his reaction to saving the fourth of those break points with a backhand winner after a pulsating rally showed the Scot's focus was not wavering.
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The Murray serve kicked into top gear in the closing stages and, with the watching Federer and Rafael Nadal getting a taste of the atmosphere inside the arena, the Scot broke again with a backhand winner to secure an impressive win in two hours 10 minutes.
Gulbis did well to hang in for most of the third set as the boisterous New York crowd willed him to make a fight of it, but Murray finally made the breakthrough in game 11 with a fantastic cross-court backhand winner and he served out for a comfortable victory.
The first set went with serve until the eighth game when Ferreira broke Hewitt's delivery with a spectacular backhand winner.
He swiftly sealed the double-break, set up by a backhand return winner up the line, followed by his opponent dumping a meek forehand into the net.
But Nadal, 19, saved the break point, and then two further opportunities, before making Henman pay with a superb backhand winner to claim the fifth game.
Game three of the third set provided the best rallies of the match so far, and saw Berankis have a break point, salvaged by Ward with a fine backhand winner.
Ferrer visibly grows in confidence and registers that hard-earned break point by wrong-footing Nadal with a brilliant crosscourt backhand winner.
But he recovered to 5-5 and then won an epic rally with a dipping backhand to the Finn's feet before finding a service winner on set point.
The world number one set up match point with a serve-and-volley winner and then earned the victory when Lee hit a powerful backhand long.
The first four games went with serve - Murray winning both of his to love - but the Scot was stunned in game five when Montanes capitalised on his fourth break point with a stunning cross-court backhand winner.
But Jankovic had just too much power as a huge cross-court backhand set up a fourth chance, and an equally heavy forehand winner put the former world number one into a seemingly decisive 5-3 lead.
The most memorable moment came in the final set, when Goffin scrambled after several Federer shots, lofted a pretty backhand lob over Federer and then sneaked toward the net for a drop volley winner.
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After dominating the first set, two stunning winners - a backhand down the line and crosscourt forehand winner - saw the two-time semi-finalist, whose only Grand Slam title came at the 2005 US Open, break to love to seal it and she opened the second with a confident hold.
But Calleri - who made 48 unforced errors - could not sustain the momentum and another wide backhand that sailed wide gave Coria his first match point which he converted with a big service winner.
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