Murray's major quarterfinal streak ends with US Open loss to Anderson

Andy Murray of Great Britain smashes his racquet in the third set of his match against Kevin Anderson of South Africa on day eight of the 2015 US Open tennis tournament in New York, Sept 7, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK - Andy Murray watched a 130 mph ace zoom by to create a two-set deficit at the US Open, and then sat in his changeover chair and cursed at himself, over and over and over.

A little later, Murray cracked his racket against the court once, breaking the frame, and went to the sideline and mangled his equipment even more, before meandering over to hand it to someone in the stands.

Often able to spur himself by letting out some anger, the two-time Grand Slam title winner only briefly managed to get into this match. The third-seeded Murray lost before the quarterfinals at a major for the first time since 2010, beaten 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (0) by 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows on Monday.

"Disappointing to lose because of that," Murray said about his earlier-than-usual exit. "Obviously that's many years' work that's gone into building that sort of consistency."

For the 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson, known mainly for a booming serve but terrific off the ground in this 4-hour, 18-minute victory, it marked a real breakthrough: He entered with an 0-7 record in fourth-round matches at majors, including when he had a two-set lead against Novak Djokovic before losing at Wimbledon two months ago.

This time, Anderson held it together, with the help of 25 aces and 81 total winners.

"I'm a little lost for words right now," the 29-year-old Anderson said. "I just managed to keep my composure throughout."