Andy Murray toughs it out to make Australian Open quarter-finals

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  • The Scot has advanced into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

    Up until Monday morning, Andy Murray was considering pulling out of the Australian Open over concern for the health of his father-in-law Nigel Sears.

    The world No.2 fled to the hospital following his third round victory on Saturday after Sears collapsed in the stands while watching his pupil Ana Ivanovic.

    Murray admits the past two days have been “tough” but with Sears out of the hospital and deemed healthy enough to fly back to the UK, the Scot took to the court for his fourth round on Monday night and got through a “scrappy” match, beating Bernard Tomic 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to set up a quarter-final with No.8 seed David Ferrer.

    Trying to reach his seventh consecutive Australian Open quarter-final, Murray survived a tension-filled affair in which he dropped serve four times and was tested by Australia’s No.1 player.

    The No.2 seed confessed he woke up feeling drained from the events of the previous two days and it took its toll on him on the court.

    “It was tough, yeah. It was tough. Obviously it depended on Nigel’s health obviously. If the news was not positive, then, no, there was absolutely no chance I would have kept playing,” Murray told reporters in Melbourne.

    He added: “To be honest, when I woke up I felt quite drained, quite tired. As the day sort of went on and I decided to play, I started to focus a little bit better. But definitely on the court I was more emotional than normal. I was talking to myself after every single point almost from the first point through till the last, which was obviously not ideal.

    “That uses up a lot of energy. Again, just that makes you sort of more kind of up and down throughout the match.”

    Murray looked on point at the start when he broke Tomic, the No.16 seed, in the opening game. But the 23-year-old struck back to draw level at 2-all before Murray went up 5-2. Serving for the set, the Brit falter giving Tomic some leeway to get back in it but Murray served it out the second time around to take a one-set lead.

    The rest of the match was no easier and it saw Murray go through numerous patches of rage but the four-time Australian Open runner-up played the better tiebreak in the third set to seal the deal and take his record against Aussies to a perfect 17-0.

    “I didn’t think we played the best match tonight. I think at times there were some entertaining rallies. But I think both of us were a little bit up and down today,” said Murray, who added he was pleased with his serving, having struck 18 aces.

    On his part, Tomic found himself again in murky waters readdressing the Roger Federer comments from Brisbane regarding the Aussie’s tough time trying to crack the top-100.

    Tomic had responded after his third round match on Saturday by saying Federer is nowhere near Novak Djokovic’s level at the moment.

    He added: “I just would have liked Roger to say ‘okay, look, he had an amazing 2015. Went from 70, 80 to being 16’. He didn’t mention it. I just felt like maybe Roger said the wrong thing.

    “I’m working. I went from where I was to 16, 17 in the world. It’s an amazing achievement. I’m there. I’m six, seven spots away. When I’m playing my best tennis, I’m a top-five player in the world. But I need to get there. And not just to get there. I want to be there four, five, six years, inside the top-10, top-five.”

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