Murray shaken as earthquake disrupts his progress in US build-up

The world No 4, Andy Murray, has revealed he felt the aftershocks of the earthquake that hit America's east coast while preparing for the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake originated in Virginia and shook Washington while also being felt as far north as Rhode Island and forcing the evacuation of the New Haven Open. It was also felt in New York where Murray was practising, confidence boosted by his win in Cincinnati last week, for the final grand slam of the year which starts next week and for which he was seeded No 4 yesterday. The Scot said on his Twitter account: "Earthquake at flushing meadows! Weird weird feeling thought I was just dizzy."

He added: "Earthquake was in washington dc 5.8, was only the after shocks here in new york strange feeling hope everyone is ok in dc."

Murray's Masters win in Cincinnati last week, capped by a dominant performance over an injury-stricken Novak Djokovic, will send him into the US Open as the most in-form player in the game.

Djokovic's current shoulder injury suggests the wear and tear of his Herculean year may finally be catching up with him – though he was seeded No 1 for the US Open yesterday. No 2 seed Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, has barely looked to have recovered from his Wimbledon final disappointment, crashing to Ivan Dodig and Mardy Fish in successive hard-court tournaments. Roger Federer, seeded No 3, has shown further signs of ailing, being well beaten by Tomas Berdych last week.

"You never know," said Murray on his chances at Flushing Meadows. "Those guys [Djokovic, Nadal and Federer] could end up making the semis of the US Open, then you get to see if it's a chance.

"If all of them lose early, obviously my chances would go up. But I'm sure come the start of the US Open on Monday, all of them will be fine. I think each one will be playing great tennis – better than they've played [in Cincinnati]."

The New Haven Open had to be delayed for more than two hours after stands shook at Yale during the match between Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Russia's Elena Vesnina.

The British women's No 1, Elena Baltacha edged out the third seed Julia Goerges at the Texas Open in Dallas, winning 2-6, 7-5, 7-6.