It wasn't all about Andy Murray, of course. Kei Nishikori, one of the best players in tennis, is in the semi-finals of the 2016 US Open on merit and will contest the title for a second time if he can beat Stan Wawrinka on Friday.

Murray, though, was the story – and not just for the British media. He has been the story across the sport all summer. He won a second Wimbledon and another Olympic gold medal, reached seven finals and, since the French Open final against Novak Djokovic, had lost only one match in 26.

The No2 seed and world No2 was expected to beat the Japanese No6 seed and world No7 and go on to beat Wawrinka, the No3 seed, and, possibly, the world No1 and defending champion, Novak Djokovic, to win his second US Open title, before heading to Glasgow and help beat Argentina in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup next weekend.

He would then rest his bones in Oxshott, Surrey, do rather well in the ATP World Tour Finals in London in November, lead Great Britain to an historic defence of the Davis Cup title a week later, be awarded his third BBC Sports Personality of the Year award and, in the New Year honours list, be dubbed Sir Andrew of Dunblane.

That was the script. Except Nishikori ripped out the first page.

There were no excuses, no tears. It was a match Murray expected to win but he did not take victory for granted – he never does. Nishikori had beaten him only once in eight attempts but played the best tennis he has done for a while when it mattered most. He stunned Murray, certainly. It was not, however, the huge shock some have called it.

Hurricane force

Murray started with hurricane force, taking the first set in 35 minutes for the loss of a single game. But, like the storm that petered out on the eastern seaboard a few days earlier, he ran out of steam at key moments, failing to capitalise often enough when his opponent dipped too.

Those are the bare bones of what happened in the first quarter-final on a hot and windless Wednesday afternoon, played mostly under the new roof on the Arthur Ashe Court. The five sets of tennis over nearly four hours thrilled the crowd, left the players spent and some onlookers bewildered, searching for deeper answers than were evident in the numbers of a terrific contest.

“He played very well when he needed to,” Murray said. “You can’t win every match. He’s had a long summer too. I tried my best – I fought as hard as I could with what I had today. I pushed myself as hard as I could over the last few months and I’m very proud of how I’ve done.”

And what about the roof, which was drawn across the arena after an hour and 11 minutes of the match, turning an outdoor event into an indoor one? Though the drizzle passed quickly, the air inside the bubble stilled and the ball slowed, nullifying Murray’s power advantage in the serve. “You just have to adjust to that,” he said.

Distractions

There were also a misfiring and distracting public address system. “I was just curious why that was,” he said of the let call against him in the fourth set when a spooky “gong” echoed around the arena. Murray lost 12 of the next 14 points, seven games in a row. There was the flickering appearance of a butterfly at the net mid-shot, too, to add a surreal element.

The fourth set went in 40 minutes, five minutes more than the first. Same score: 6-1 – but in Nishikori’s favour. The pendulum had swung violently, knocking Murray’s tennis out of kilter before a fifth and deciding set.

Yet, in eight years, Murray had lost only two five-setters, both of them to Djokovic. Surely he could conjure up another escape? Not this time. He broke Nishikori twice. Nishikori broke him three times, and the splendid Japanese player had done it: 1-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in three minutes under four hours.

As Djokovic said when a third player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, had failed to finish a match against him in this tournament: “That’s sport.” Rafael Nadal said something similar when he lost to the new young French prospect, Lucas Pouille. Nobody is immune.

Del Potro defeat

Other players lost, of course. Wawrinka ended the New York fairytale of Juan Martín del Potro. The Argentinian giant won here when a teenager in 2009 but, after his failing body cut him down for two years, he roused himself to make a run to the Olympic final and through four matches before running into the determined Wawrinka and losing out 7-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The odds are Djokovic will beat Gaël Monfils, the No10 seed, for the 13th time in a row in today’s other semi-final and go on to win his third major of the year. But who can be sure? We finally have what was missing for too long in tennis: uncertainty. Guardian service