The 29-year-old needs to be fired up to play his best tennis and that was fully in evidence in his fourth-round win over John Isner, when he berated himself constantly but played a fine match to win in straight sets.
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On his 13th attempt, Richard Gasquet reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 victory over fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori. It was his seventh win in seven matches against the 37-year-old as Murray goes on to face either John Isner of the United States or Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russian Federation.
It is the sixth time he has reached the last eight here – one more than Fred Perry achieved.
Earlier in the day, Murray’s brother Jamie, and doubles partner Bruno Soares’ winning grand slam run came to an end in the third round.
‘I don’t mind it when the crowd is against me. Back in 2010, they drew one another in the first round at a time in his career when Gasquet was unseeded following missed time on tour. He has won three of their 10 meetings but has lost all four of their encounters at Grand Slam level.
Murray has won all of the pair’s five meetings but they have never met on clay.
Serbia’s world No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic plays his fourth-round match against Roberto Bautista Agut on Monday. But I do think I did turn a corner on my season this week, considering how I was down and out in my first-round match.
“You can say we’re trying to finish the game, but I wasn’t trying to finish the game”.
“We have played together very often”.
The Scot felt the grey skies and heavy balls favoured him, but Isner said: “I don’t think the conditions had much to do with it”.
Gasquet’s coach, former Roland Garros champ Sergi Bruguera, pumped-up his charge in the dressing room, and the Frenchman stormed to the first set and an eventual quarterfinal berth. It is something I will speak to a couple of doctors about to get some advice. I don’t remember loads about the matches. Nine years later, at the age of 18, he beat Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters. “I have always been very careful with my money …”
Gasquet has been extremely impressive so far at his home major.
Gasquet and Murray will now be facing each other for the 11th time in their careers on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, the world No 12 said his confidence had been boosted by his performances in Grand Slam tournaments a year ago.
Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet square off in the quarterfinals of the 2016 French Open. That’s not why I’ve lost matches.
“Definitely got some reps in against a pretty big serve”.
“He’s a huge fighter”. A lot more rhythm, longer points, more physical matches.
You can’t control it and it’s easy to get frustrated. He’s very strong mentally. He’s a big competitor. “But I kept hanging in there and managed to take a few”. He’s the number two player, and for good reason.
Gasquet added: “I know what I need to do”.
“I knew if I want to win (against) this guy, I need to play very, very deep and very fast… I would imagine he’s definitely feeling more confident now; he played a great match”.
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The Frenchman said the support of the crowd had played an important part in his victory over Nishikori. It’s always important to have the crowd cheering for you, as they did it on the court, and I admit it made a big difference for me. However, round three saw him pick on a exhausted Ivo Karlovic, and the fourth round saw him beat John Isner without dropping a set.
