Olympic champion Murray opens with Flushing Meadows win as Watson exits

The third seed was hoping to carry the momentum from his golden Olympics into the year’s final grand slam but he could not have made a worse start, dropping his opening service game with a series of errors.

There had been a rain delay of more than two hours as a heavy thunderstorm hit Flushing Meadows and Murray appeared to be mentally still in the locker room.

He pulled level with an immediate break of Bogomolov’s serve only to be broken again as the strange start to the match continued, the Scot bouncing his racket on the court in frustration.

The world No 4 had won their previous two meetings, and managed to get himself back on terms once more with yet another break for 2-2.

This time he finally held on to his own serve, although not without saving two more break points, and at last began to look more comfortable.

He took his third chance to gain a third straight break of Bogomolov’s serve with a lovely angled backhand, and then ensured his opponent ended the set without holding serve at all as he wrapped it up in 43 minutes.

Although he had improved markedly, all was still not well with Murray, who was getting little more than 30 per cent of his first serves in and muttering to himself.

He promptly dropped serve again at the start of the second set and this time he could not retrieve the situation immediately as Bogomolov finally held serve.

The 29-year-old has had a disappointing season, dropping from 34th in the world at the start of the year to 73rd, but he was playing aggressively and really taking the game to Murray.

The Scot had to save two more break points to avoid going 4-1 behind, but he held on and then drew level at 4-4 when Bogomolov drilled a forehand long.

That proved to be the turning point as Murray broke again to win the set 6-4, powering a forehand winner out of the reach of his opponent.

That opened the floodgates, as Bogomolov wilted in the third set 6-1 to hand Murray victory.

Murray was reasonably satisfied with his performance, saying: “I thought it was a six or seven out of 10. I didn’t serve particularly well at the beginning but I won in straight sets against a tough player, and that’s what I needed to do.”

Heather Watson’s US Open campaign came to an end on the first afternoon as she was defeated 6-2 6-3 by ninth seed Li Na.

The 20-year-old Briton said: “I’m happy with how I played.

“She was hitting winners off balls I wouldn’t think you could hit winners off, hitting lots of lines, she had a really high first-serve percentage and she just played better tennis.”