TENNIS: Spain's Fernando Verdasco ended fourth seed Andy Murray's Australian Open campaign with a 2-6 6-1 1-6 6-3 6-4 victory today to reach his first grand slam quarter-final. Verdasco became the first left hander, other than world number one Rafa Nadal, to beat Murray at tour level and also notched his first victory in six matches against the Scot.
The 21-year-old, one of the pre-tournament favourites and widely tipped to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's singles grand slam champion, produced flashes of brilliantly controlled tennis but also made numerous elementary errors.
On several occasions throughout the match he chastised himself, at one point in the fourth set screaming "what the hell are you doing?".
Murray, however, blamed himself for not converting his chances.
"I could have started a couple of the sets better," said Murray. "I went behind, played a couple of poor games early in the second and fourth sets to get behind.
"If I sort of stayed on top there, that might have made a bit of a difference. But apart from that...I did have my chances."
The match was a see-saw affair with both men thrashing the other in the opening two sets before Murray seemed to have gathered momentum in the third when he took it 6-1.
The Hisense Arena crowd, the majority of whom seemed to be supporting Murray, then broke into renditions of the Scottish national anthem "Flower of Scotland" and chants of "if you love Andy Murray stamp your feet".
Murray, however, failed to capitalise and 14th seed Verdasco broke in the second game of the fourth set and held on to the advantage to stretch the match into a decider.
The pair held serve until the sixth game of the fifth set when Verdasco saved two break points and produced several big serves to hold.
The Spaniard, who let out a loud yawp at the end of that game, broke Murray in the next game to give himself a 4-3 lead and when he held serve in the eighth he sensed an upset was on the cards.
Murray held serve to narrow the gap to 5-4 but Verdasco produced three huge serves to give himself three match points.
Murray managed to save the first two in nerve-racking baseline duels but Verdasco sealed victory after three hours, 12 minutes when Murray's backhand service return cannoned into the net.
The 25-year-old Verdasco will next meet either fifth seed Jo Wilfried-Tsonga or James Blake, who play later.
"For me it was one of the biggest goals to be in quarter-finals for first time in a grand slam," said Verdasco.
"I was feeling with big confidence and pretty fit. So I was (confident) to make quarter-finals for the first time.
"Right now I am so happy to make this goal possible."
Australian Open results
Men's Singles 4th rd: (1) Rafael Nadal (Spa) bt (13) Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) 6-3 6-2 6-4, (6) Gilles Simon (Fra) bt (12) Gael Monfils (Fra) 6-4 2-6 6-1 ret, (14) Fernando Verdasco (Spa) bt (4) Andy Murray (Gbr) 2-6 6-1 1-6 6-3 6-4, (5) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt (9) James Blake (USA) 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-3)
Women's Singles 4th rd: Carla Suarez-Navarro (Spa) bt (21) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) 6-3 6-2, (4) Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt (18) Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) 6-2 6-2, (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt (22) Jie Zheng (Chn) 4-1 ret, (2) Serena Williams (USA) bt (13) Victoria Azarenka (Blr) 3-6 4-2 ret
Men's Doubles 3rd rd: Lukasz Kubot (Pol) & Oliver Marach (Aut) bt Carsten Ball (Aus) & Chris Guccione (Aus) 6-2 6-4, (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) & Mark Knowles (Bah) bt Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) & Tommy Robredo (Spa) 6-3 6-4, Simone Bolelli (Ita) & Andreas Seppi (Ita) bt Andrew Coelho (Aus) & Joseph Sirianni (Aus) 3-6 6-1 6-4, (4) Lukas Dlouhy (Cze) & Leander Paes (Ind) bt Paul Hanley (Aus) & Jordan Kerr (Aus) 6-2 7-5
Women's Doubles 3rd rd: (1) Cara Black (Zim) & Liezel Huber (USA) bt (13) Victoria Azarenka (Blr) & Vera Zvonareva (Rus) w/o, (9) Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) & Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) bt Agnes Szavay (Hun) & Elena Vesnina (Rus) 6-1 6-2, (12) Casey Dellacqua (Aus) & Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt (7) Maria Kirilenko (Rus) & Flavia Pennetta (Ita) w/o, Anna-Lena Groenefeld (Ger) & Patty Schnyder (Swi) bt Lucie Safarova (Cze) & Galina Voskoboeva (Kaz) 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3
Mixed Doubles
1st rd: (7) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) & Tommy Robredo (Spa) bt Elena Vesnina (Rus) & Martin Damm (Cze) 6-4 6-3
2nd rd: Aleksandra Wozniak (Can) & Daniel Nestor (Can) bt (2) Zi Yan (Chn) & Mark Knowles (Bah) 7-6 (10-8) 6-4
Boy's Singles 1st rd: (15) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (Tpe) bt James Chaudry (Gbr) 6-1 2-6 6-3
Girl's Singles 1st rd: (5) Laura Robson (Gbr) bt Christina McHale (USA) 7-5 6-3
Boy's Doubles 1st rd: James Chaudry (Gbr) & John Morrissey (Irl) bt Andrew McLeod (Aus) & Todd Volmari (Aus) 6-3 6-0
Girl's Doubles 1st rd: (5) Anna Orlik (Blr) & Laura Robson (Gbr) bt Fatima Al Nabhani (Oma) & Zuzana Luknarova (Svk) 6-4 6-3, Victoria Kamenskaya (Rus) & Karina Pimkina (Rus) bt (7) Yana Buchina (Rus) & Heather Watson (Gbr) 7-5 6-4, Ester Goldfeld (USA) & Hannah James (Gbr) bt Tanvi Shah (Ind) & Rashmi Teltumbde (Ind) 6-4 7-6 7-5