World number two Andy Murray beat Bernard Tomic in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and end home interest in the tournament on Monday.
Murray downed the 16th-seeded Tomic 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in two hours, 30 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to set up a last-eight match with Spanish eighth seed David Ferrer.
It is the first time in 39 years that a man and a woman from Britain have qualified in the same Grand Slam event, after Johanna Konta, who earlier entered the quarters in women's singles beating Ekaterina Makarova, and Murray entered the last-16. The last time such an occurrence happened when Sue Barker and John Lloyd qualified in 1977 at the Australian Open. Robin Drysdale also qualified that year.
The two-time grand slam champion has never lost to an Australian in 17 ATP Tour matches. Murray stormed out of the blocks on Rod Laver Arena, breaking in the first game before consolidating for a 2-0 lead. However, Murray was not without his moments of concern, particularly in that second game, when he complained to the chair umpire about the video screen.
Tomic capitalised as Murray seemingly lost his focus, levelling proceedings at 2-2 only for the latter to win the next three games.
Murray — who was agitated for most of the opener, yelling at someone in his box to get off their phone — was unable to serve out the set at the first time of asking, but he closed it out two games later. While he took the opening set, Murray was not overly convincing and that theme continued in the second as he exchanged breaks with Tomic in the first three games.
But Murray was the first player to hold serve and earn a 3-1 advantage, a buffer he never relinquished after sealing the final game of the set to love with an ace. Just as Murray, who boasted a 131-1 win-loss record when claiming the opening two sets, looked all but set to wrap the match in a timely manner, Tomic forced a fourth set tie-break, though it only delayed the inevitable.
STATISTICAL BREAKDOWN
Murray [2] bt Tomic [16] 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4)
ACES
Murray - 18
Tomic - 10
WINNERS/UNFORCED ERRORS
Murray - 43/22
Tomic - 33/56
BREAK POINTS WON
Murray - 6/13
Tomic - 4/9
FIRST SERVE PERCENTAGE
Murray - 57
Tomic - 65
PERCENTAGE OF POINTS WON ON FIRST/SECOND SERVE
Murray - 73/57
Tomic - 62/33
TOTAL POINTS
Murray - 122
Tomic - 95
Comments
SHARE