Drained Andy overcomes ‘scary’ family drama
Melbourne : Andy Murray put a traumatic few days over the health of his father-in-law behind him on Monday as he beat Bernard Tomic to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals.
The British world number two ended the remaining home interest in the Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over 16th-seeded Tomic to set up a last-eight match with Spanish baseliner David Ferrer.
Meanwhile, Canadian star Milos Raonic, who was also shaken in his previous match by a high school shooting in his home country, impressively ousted the 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in a tense five-setter.
Raonic, bidding to broaden his game under new coach Carlos Moya, overcame the Swiss world number four 6-4, 6-3, 5 -7, 4-6, 6-3 and will face Frenchman Gael Monfils in the last eight.
There were questions how Murray would respond in his first match after his father-in-law Nigel Sears, Ana Ivanovic’s coach, collapsed at the tournament and was taken to hospital on Saturday.
Sears was cleared to leave hospital on Sunday and fly home following tests. Adding to the tension of the moment, Murray’s wife Kim Sears is heavily pregnant and he has pledged to rush home if she goes into labour. “Last few days were very, very tough. A lot of emotions, it’s been sort of changing all the time in my head,” Murray said on court moments after his win. Murray put the medical emergency behind him but it was a scrappy match, as he broke Tomic’s serve six times and dropped his own serve four times.
“It was a tough match and both of us had our chances, Bernie didn’t play his best tiebreak and missed a few easy balls so that helped at the end but he fought right to the end,” Murray said. Raonic, the Canadian 13th seed, came out on top of a tense five-setter with Wawrinka after letting slip a two sets lead. It was Raonic’s first win against the reigning French Open champion in five meetings, and he has not lost a match at tour level since going down to Rafael Nadal in the third round of last year’s Shanghai Masters.
Spanish eighth seed Ferrer ousted America’s John Isner in 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours, four minutes to set up his crack at Murray in the quarters. Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka remained in ominous form Monday to surge into the Australian Open quarter-finals, as Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai’s amazing Grand Slam run stayed alive. Former world number one Azarenka proved too strong for Czech Barbora Strycova on Rod Laver Arena, storming through 6 -2, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Angelique Kerber, who beat fellow German Annika Beck 6-4, 6-0.
