Kim Sears is expecting a baby in February, and Murray has said on two occasions that he will fly home from the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam, should she go into labor during the tournament.
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An emotionally drained Andy Murray beat Bernard Tomic to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, easing the stress of a hard few days after the collapse of his father-in-law. Murray put the medical emergency behind him but it was a scrappy match, as he broke Tomic’s serve six times and dropped his own serve four times.
“Definitely on the court tonight I was more emotional than normal”, he said. But yeah I was in the first match, match point down.
“It s been a hard, hard few days”. Things have been changing all the time. “It will be nice for her, I’m sure”.
Milos Raonic fought off a spirited comeback from fourth seed Stan Wawrinka to send the 2014 champion crashing out of the fourth round of the Australian Open 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 on Monday.
Wawrinka was the only man to beat top-ranked Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam match past year – the French Open final – and the last man to beat him at Melbourne Park since 2010.
Raonic lost to Djokovic in the quarterfinals here a year ago.
Raonic will next meet No. 23 seed Gael Monfils, who booked his first Australian Open quarterfinal appearance with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) win over Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov. Monfils entertained the Margaret Court Arena crowd with his manic all-over-the-court antics, including a bounding full-stretch dive that resulted in him needing an injury timeout for treatment on his right hand.
“Obviously it depended on Nigel’s health”, Murray said. It wasn’t that straightforward as on Saturday night going to hospital and everything was fine.
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka remained in ominous form Monday to surge into the Australian Open quarter-finals, as Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai’s fantastic Grand Slam run stayed alive.
Former world number one Azarenka proved too strong for Czech Barbora Strycova on Rod Laver Arena, storming through 6-2, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Kerber, who beat fellow German Annika Beck 6-4, 6-0.
The big-serving Canadian said he felt fitter, faster and more confident in going to the net more frequently, and all that combined to produce his first win on Melbourne Park’s center court. “The more players that do that, I think, the more other players look at it and go, “I can do that as well”.
Meanwhile, Canadian star Milos Raonic, who was also shaken in his previous match by a high school shooting in his home country, impressively ousted the 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in a tense five-setter.
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Raonic is off to a great start this year – he has won all of his eight matches, including the final in Brisbane against Roger Federer – but hasn’t had almost the success Curry has enjoyed in the past year.
