There is one similarity to the career of the great Bjorn Borg that Rafael Nadal does not want: the failure to win the U.S. Open.  Borg won six French Opens and five straight Wimbledons but never won the American Open, reaching the finals four times (losing to Jimmy Connors in ‘76, ‘78, and McEnroe in ‘80 and ‘81). Nadal has won four French Opens in a row and finally broke through at Wimbledon this year, but has only once reached the U.S. Open semis and twice reached the quarters in five tries.

Nadal’s topspin does not translate as well to hard courts of Flushing Meadows, where Andy Murray today kept him back on his heels and did what seemed unthinkable: he out-groundstroked the Spanish bull to win the match. While Nadal is young at 22 and is tired from the long summer that included the trip to Bejing where he won the gold medal on hardcourts, it seems he might just share the same jinx that cursed Borg in New York.