The No. 2-ranked Murray, who has lost four finals at Melbourne Park, will meet Milos Raonic in the semifinals.
Advertisement
He’s learning a lot about the Chinese artist.
Prediction: I’ll say Murray wins it in four.
“What’s happened with Jo (Konta) I think has come as a surprise to everyone”. But Murray “marmalised the world number 67 with the biggest serve in the game so completely that he left the very clear impression he is in great shape to reach his fifth final here”.
RAONIC VS. MONFILS: Raonic, who has not dropped a set this tournament, hasn’t beaten Monfils in two previous matches, although that was in 2011 and 2013. After winning the French Open in 1976, Barker lost 7-5, 6-4 to the Australian Helen Cawley, who lost out to Evonne Goolagong in the final.
First, he took exception with the BBC and BuzzFeed News reports that alleged tennis authorities had ignored evidence of match-fixing involving 16 players in the past decade.
Ivanisevic said, “You put some names in the computer and the computer puts your name out, like you’re serial killer and then everybody’s chasing you”.
Murray was never really in trouble again, mind you, registering early breaks in the third and fourth sets. But he added that speculation about specific players isn’t fair without evidence of wrongdoing. Asked to comment on what the craziest thing he’d ever seen Monfils do on court, Raonic said, smiling: “Probably the thing he does next”. “It’s worse than taking doping”. She is set to take on No. 14 Victoria Azarenka, and the victor of that match will advance to the semifinals will there will face one of Johanna Konta or Shuai Zhang, both unseeded opponents. The two have split their six encounters.
The only other Briton left in the singles draw, Johanna Konta, who beat Venus Williams on day two of the competition, also booked her place in the round three with a straightforward win over world number 83 Saisai Zheng of China.
Ferrer proved a difficult proposition for Murray, relentlessly slugging it out from the baseline and keeping the Scot working hard in a physically demanding match on Rod Laver Arena. Azarenka is the 26-year-old two-time Australian Open champion trying to reclaim her former superiority.
It took Murray almost 20 minutes of the match on a sweltering day – the forecast storms failing to arrive as scheduled – to crack the Spaniard’s resolve in a drawn-out third game in which the net took a proper pounding. But definitely on the court tonight, I was more emotional than normal.
The first Grand Slam of the season has been overshadowed from the start by media reports alleging that tennis authorities had failed to thoroughly investigate evidence of match-fixing. “Extremely positive. Just got to try and capitalise on it”.
The opening set saw Raonic, who recently won the Brisbane International title against Roger Federer, racing into a 4-1 lead, breaking Monfils’ serve in the fourth game of the match.
Advertisement
Two sets in the Robredo game though, went to tie-breakers while Wawrinka came back from two sets down to send it to a five-set match.
