Share

Murray cruises through to French Open fourth round

He posted an image of a Get Out of Jail Free card from the board game Monopoly on social media after fighting back from two sets to one down against world number 164 Bourgue.

Advertisement

But the matches have been close-eight of their sets have gone to tiebreaks with Murray winning five of the eight.

Isner has taken just three sets off Murray in their past five encounters, although their matches have always been quite tight, not surprisingly.

“He was excellent today. I hope I win six more matches”, said Serena, showcasing her French to an appreciate crowd.

Smith told Press Association Sport: “Clearly the form he’s showed in Monte Carlo, Madrid and of course in Rome with Djokovic, it got everyone talking about it a bit more and I’m sure, with the standards he’s set, how he was hitting the ball, how he was executing every point and rally, it was exceptional”.

“He fought right to the end”.

“I led 6-2, 2-0 then he started playing unbelievably and I was finding it hard to win points, let alone games”.

As an indication of his struggles, Wednesday was the first time since the US Open in 2005 that Murray had played two successive five-set matches at the Slams. It certainly was no reason for how I performed against Bourgue or how the match went.

“The positive is I play Karlovic in the next round, and physically, you know, the average rally length will only be a few shots, maybe three, four shots max”.

At 37 years and 98 days, Karlovic was trying to become the oldest man to reach the last 16 here since 1972.

But Murray stayed focused and wrapped up a no-nonsense win on his first match point when the 27th seed sprayed a forehand well wide.

Japan’s main ATP ace Kei Nishikori, the fifth seed, advanced over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Ivo Karlovic (CRO)[27] 6-1 6-4 7-6(3) Stan Wawrinka (SUI)[3] d.

He has yet to lose a set but has yet to play another seed, too, and that good fortune continues in the fourth round, as Albert Ramos-Vinolas beat No23 seed Jack Sock after well over four hours and fives sets, 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Gasquet and Kyrgios have met at the last two Wimbledons with the Australian saving nine match points in 2014 before losing a controversial rematch a year ago when he was accused of tanking a game.

Tenth seed Petra Kvitova overwhelmed Taiwan’s Hsieh Su Wei 6-4, 6-1; 2015 finalist Lucie Safarova, the Czech 11th seed, beat Swiss teenager Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2.

In the women’s draw, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep and Samantha Stosur all made it through to the fourth round.

Advertisement

The world No. 2 produced a dominant performance, recording a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) win to secure himself a spot in the fourth round, where he will face either John Isner or Teymuraz Gabashvili. For the best part of two sets Murray was all but silent, which seemed to prove the point he had made that he plays his best tennis when he is expressing his emotions on court.

Andy Murray needed less than two hours to defeat Karlovic