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On Saturday night Andy recorded his 59th win of 2015, equalling his total wins from the whole of 2014, and moved into the second week of the US Open. After tricky matches in the first and second rounds and dealing with the onset of a head cold, Andy was in need of a convincing, dominant, win and he delivered that against the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.
In the fourth round Andy takes on Kevin Anderson, who is enjoying a good run of form having won the ATP 250 tournament in Winston-Salem. After the first three rounds Anderson leads the tournament ace statistics, serving 69 to Andy's 45.
Meanwhile Andy's returning has been stronger than it might appear, with him situated inside the top five of the players still in the draw on both first and second serve return points won - interestingly Djokovic and Federer are not in the tournament top 20 on these statistics.
While Andy has returned well enough to create 52 break points across three matches but has only won 19 of those meaning he has converted 32.5% overall: that is 13.5% less than Andy's average across the surfaces in 2015, and 11.5% less on hard courts alone.
With Anderson serving as well as he is - 67% average first serve percentage and 85% of first serve points won - it goes without saying that Andy's return game needs to be 'on' and he needs to ensure that break point opportunities are not wasted.
The pair last met on the centre court in the final of the ATP 500 tournament at London's Queen's Club. That day Andy had completed his rain delayed semi-final before going on to defeat Anderson in a masterclass of variety and returning. Going into that match much had been made about Anderson's excellent serving all week, but Andy dismantled the tall South African's second serve and left him flailing all over the court.
That was all on a court which is perhaps tailor made for Andy. The fourth round match between Andy and Anderson will take place on what is perhaps the Scotsman's most hated court in the world. The lack of run back being principal amongst his issues with the court, particularly when it comes to returning big serves. But other problems are lack of width around the court, the furnace like conditions and the fact that one corner is slightly sunk. Little wonder the court is set to be demolished.
Knowing his dislike of the court, and remembering all the previous nightmare matches that have taken place on this court, Andy's matches on Armstrong can often be nervy affairs for his fans. Reports are that the court is playing faster than in previous years. Then there is the fact that the temperature is due to be in the 30s and humidity much lower than it was in the first week. This should help both men on serve, but will make returning tougher, and it could be that in these conditions and on this court it may take Andy some time to get a read on the Anderson serve. While he's doing that he'll need to ensure he doesn't leave his second serve vulnerable to attack from Anderson's forehand.
The match is scheduled to be the third match on Armstrong, at approximately 2.30pm local time, 7.30pm BST. The weather is forcast to be clear, with highs of 32 degrees Celsius, and a south westerly breeze of 4mph with gusts of up to 7mph.
