Influence of mother comes to fore as Murray meets Istomin

The 26-year-old from Uzbekistan is unique among leading male players in that he is coached by his mother.

Klaudiya Istomina, a keen player herself, introduced her son to tennis and has coached him throughout his career.

Istomin said: “We have a good relationship and we understand each other very well.

“She always tries to help me with everything, not just tennis, normal life as well. She gives me good words to improve my tennis, my life, everything. I’m happy to be coached by my mum.”

Istomin is ranked 65th in the world and is through to the fourth round at a grand slam for only the second time after beating Andreas Seppi in five sets on Sunday.

Murray has won their only previous meeting, in Brisbane this year, but Istomin is a dangerous big-hitter who took a set off Novak Djokovic in Montreal last month.

The Uzbek said: “I’m looking forward to it. He’s a great returner. He returns almost everything. The key is my serve. I will try to serve better than usual.”

Murray will hope the match is played on Arthur Ashe rather than on Flushing Meadows’ second court, Louis Armstrong, where he always has trouble and dropped a set against Leonardo Mayer in the second round.

Murray was coached by his mother Judy until he was 12 and she remains an important part of his support team

“There are not loads of people that get coached by their parents,” said Murray. “A lot of them do from a young age, but not so much when they’re on the tour.

“Obviously it works for him. Technically he’s very sound. He’s a good player. He hits the ball very flat. He served extremely well I think in his match (against Seppi). I saw some of the stats at the end.

“He’s played well and he’s had some good wins this week.”

Defending champion Murray had more trouble with the humid conditions on Sunday than he did with third-round opponent Florian Mayer. The third seed never looked comfortable but came through 7-6 (7/2) 6-2 6-2.

Murray was much in demand before the tournament started but it is clear Roger Federer, Djokovic and Nadal still share top billing.

Murray is the only one of the big names on the men’s side to have played a match away from Ashe, while he has been in the prime-time night session just once.

“I haven’t really noticed ever thinking that I’m front page news,” he said. “In some ways it’s nice, but I don’t really think it makes a whole lot of difference to how I play.”