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Andy Murray came through his first rocky moments at this year’s Australian Open to beat French “lucky loser” Stephane Robert in four sets and line up a heavyweight quarter-final.
The three-time finalist won 6-1 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 in two hours and 42 minutes to reach the last eight.
There he will meet Roger Federer after the four-time champion swept past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets.
Robert, ranked 119, was outclassed for the first two sets on a blustery and relatively cool afternoon at Melbourne Park, but took the third with a surge of form that saw a fuming Murray smash his racquet in frustration.
“I dominated 95 percent of the match, and for 15 minutes didn’t close the match out,” said Murray.
“But I still created chances, even when I wasn’t playing so well at the end of that third set. And then the fourth set was fairly comfortable.
“I lost my serve once, so it was pretty good for the most part.”
Asked about breaking his racquet, he added with a smile: “Sometimes it’s necessary. My racquet bit the dust. Unfortunate for it, but I was glad I managed to start well in the fourth.”
A late call-up as a replacement to the main draw saw Robert, who describes his style as “casino tennis”, make an unprecedented run to the last 16.
The 33-year-old was probably being more sincere than most players when he said before the match that he had nothing to lose, having already been beaten in qualifying.
As promised, the Frenchman came out swinging, firing one huge forehand winner down the line in the opening game, but after Murray saved a break point with a big serve, it was one-way traffic for the next 90 minutes.
Twelve winners, several of which came in a run of 11 points in a row, helped him race to the first set in 25 minutes
With plenty of vocal support on his third visit to Hisense Arena – the second show court – the Wimbledon champion powered through nine successive games on his way to a two-set lead.
Robert had given the crowd some entertaining tennis but made barely a dent on Murray’s defences.
Three service holds spoke of some more dogged resistance in the third set as he fought off six break points at 3-3, but when Murray crunched a backhand return on the seventh, the win appeared to be as good as his.
It was not quite that straightforward. Suddenly edgy, Murray faced break point in his next service game and was then broken trying to close out the match.
Robert had turned the tables and finally started to get the Briton on the run, moving into a 4-2 lead in the tie-break, before Murray reeled off three attacking volleys and a thumping backhand to earn two match points.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova followed top seed Serena Williams out of the Australian Open with a shock defeat by Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round.
The Russian, who won the title in 2008, lost 3-6 6-4 6-1 in an erratic display on Rod Laver Arena.
Five-time champion Williams was beaten by Ana Ivanovic 24 hours earlier, leaving two-time winner Victoria Azarenka – the second seed – as the player with the most major titles in the draw.
Third seed Sharapova left the court for a medical timeout before the final set, and finished with a total of 45 unforced errors as Cibulkova closed it out in two hours and 12 minutes.
“I have a bit of a strain, the trainer told me, in the hip area,” said Sharapova, who was playing only her second tournament since missing the second half of 2013 with hip and shoulder injuries.
“Those aches and pains are expected when you spend a long time on the court. You just have to play through it.”
Cibulkova, 24, moves on to face Simona Halep in her first Australian Open quarter-final, the third time she has reached the last eight of a Grand Slam.
“It feels great, especially because I played well and it was a tough match,” said Cibulkova, the 20th seed.
“I went on the court and I was more than 100 percent sure that I really could beat her, and beat her on the big court, in an important match in a Grand Slam.
“I did it before. She knows me and I knew she knew it was going to be a tough match. I was prepared for it.”
Cibulkova added she had been “a little bit angry” as she felt the Russian’s struggles with her ball toss in the closing stages were “on purpose”.
Sharapova had played an epic second-round match on Thursday against Karin Knapp that lasted three-and-a-half hours in temperatures of around 40C.
The 26-year-old’s serve had been wildly unreliable in that match but was functioning well enough in the early stages against Cibulkova as she edged the first set.- BBC.
Bongani Ndlovu