TENNIS:AGAINST A backdrop of cat-calls from the stands on a wind-whipped day on Court Philippe Chatrier, Andy Murray beat Richard Gasquet in mind and heart, on the ground and in the air, to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open.
It was a fractious match that lasted two and a half hours, with several close calls – one of which in Murray’s favour in the second set troubled Gasquet to the point of near-meltdown for half an hour or more.
Murray, who angered patrons and his opponent when he clutched his back after losing a couple of key points towards the end of a wild first set, showed enormous mental strength to ignore the distractions and won handsomely in the end, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
He meets David Ferrer tomorrow.
“He started very well,” Murray told the French courtside interviewer – anxious, probably, to pacify the crowd, who were still booing. “He went for a lot of shots, high risk, he’s done that before to me. We’ve had some great matches. I’ve known him since he was a young kid. I just managed to get through today.”
That was sugaring the pill. After coming through the first half hour – when Gasquet played some tennis from heaven – Murray wore him down mentally and with an array of bewildering ground strokes.
In that strange opening, Murray aced, saved a point with two amazing gets from smashes and double-faulted to drop serve. Thereafter there were flickers of wizardry on both sides of the net, Gasquet served out and they got down to some scintillating exchanges in the second. The final two sets were almost wholly Murray’s.
Ferrer was in predatory mood again accounting for the timid challenge of Marcel Granollers.
While Granollers was falling over in front of Ferrer on Court Philippe Chatrier, Tomas Berdych pushed Juan Martin del Potro all the way on Court Suzanne Lenglen in a match held over from the night before, the Argentinian finishing it off 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.
In the other match carried over, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga almost blew his lead but hung on in the final and deciding set to defeat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4. Next up for the Frenchman is Novak Djokovic tomorrow.
