Brave Murray forced to dig deep to win late-night epic
ANDY MURRAY hailed his 15,000-strong army of fans after battling his way through a record-breaking five-set thriller with Stanislas Wawrinka.
Playing under the new Centre Court roof for the first time, the British No1 recovered from a disastrous opening set to clinch an epic 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory in a match which finished at 10.38pm – the latest ever at Wimbledon.
Murray, attempting to become the first British Wimbledon Men’s Singles champion since Fred Perry in 1936, was taken to the very brink by the Swiss 19th seed, who never gave up despite losing his early strangehold on a pulsating match. Wawrinka had clearly done his homework on his training partner, forcing Murray into several unforced errors, before the Scot somehow held his nerve in a gripping deciding set to book a quarter-final date against wildcard Juan Carlos Ferrero tomorrow.
Witnessing the first floodlit match at the All England Club, the sell-out crowd greeted very winning point from Murray with a tumultuous roar – the roof raising acoustics on Centre Court to whole new levels.
Although clearly drained, the third seed beamed: “It was great, always when you play indoors the atmosphere is great, but when you’ve got 15,000 supporters it makes it extra special, so thanks a lot. It was pretty special, I thought Stan played a great match. The standard he set at the start was tough to keep up with. He was playing great and he came out with some big shots. In five-set matches there are momentum shifts sometimes.”
Waiting for Murray in the last eight was favourite Roger Federer after he repeated his French Open final victory over Sweden’s Robin Soderling with a straight sets victory. Just as at Roland Garros last month, the Swiss never looked in any danger as he rallied to a 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) success.
Five-time champion Federer now takes on big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the quarter-final after he beat seventh seed Fernando Verdasco.
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, came from two sets down to beat Radek Stepanek 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, and set up a quarter-final with sixth seed Andy Roddick, who impressed on his way to a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tomas Berdych. Fourth seed Novak Djokovic is also through after a 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 win over Dudi Sela.
MEN’S SINGLES QUARTER-FINAL DRAW
L Hewitt v A Roddick (6)
A Murray (3) v J-C Ferrero
T Haas (24) v N Djokovic (4)
I Karlovic (22) v R Federer (2)
ORDER OF PLAY DAY EIGHT
CENTRE COURT (1pm start)
D Safina (Rus) (1) v S Lisicki (Ger)
V Azarenka (8) v S Williams (2)
Bryan/Bryan (1) v Soares/Ullyett (5)
COURT ONE (1pm start)
V Williams (3) v A Radwanska (11)
F Schiavone v E Dementieva (4)
Kubot/Marach (8) v Nestor/Zimonjic (5)