For Andy Murray, this was the comeback within the comeback, the improbable escape within the improbable escape, as he worked his way back from trailing 2-5 in this afternoon's one-set denouement with Serbia's Viktor Troicki to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open.Resuming a match that had had been suspended overnight because of darkness, Murray came within two points of being eliminated from the Bois de Boulogne.
To call this a one-set, lunchtime 'shoot-out' would be to risk making this sound too cold and clinical, and it was certainly none of those things. This was a messy, uneven, ragged, extraordinary conclusion to a five-set, two-day match that Murray won won 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.
When Troicki was serving for the match at 5-3, and led 30-0 in that game, it seemed as though Murray's next assignment after leaving Court Suzanne Lenglen would be to prepare for the English grass-court season, rather than tomorrow's match at Roland Garros against Juan Ignacio Chela, an unseeded Argentine ranked 34 in the world, with the winner to go through to meet Spain's Rafael Nadal or Sweden's Robin Soderling.
On Monday evening, Murray had been two sets down and then a break down in the third, yet he rode out problems with his ankle and his mental approach to level the fourth-round match before it was stopped for the day because of the fading light, and when they returned to play a fifth set, he turned it around to win the last five games.
Though Murray was undoubtedly helped by a nervous Troicki fading away towards the close of this piece, this was a match that will be remembered for the way that Murray refused to countenance the idea that his clay-court season was over, and that he should start thinking about the grass.
So Murray is into the last eight at the French Open for the second time in his career, the previous occasion having been a couple of years ago when he was beaten by Chile's Fernando Gonzalez. Murray will probably never have a better opportunity to reach the semi-finals at this tournament than a match against Chela, who lost to Tim Henman in the last eight here seven years ago.
The first break of the fifth set came in the sixth game, which started with a strange episode involving one of the ball-kids. Troicki was about to hit an overhead when he realised there was a ball-boy getting under his feet – the confused teenager had thought the ball was going out, and had come to fetch it.
Troicki carried on with his shot and struck a winner and was enraged when the umpire decided that the point should be replayed. Perhaps, if Murray had been sporting, he could have given Troicki that point.
Even so, Troicki broke in that game when he forced an error, and then held serve to establish a 5-2 lead. Though Murray had had breakpoint opportunities on Troicki's serve up to that stage, the Serbian had played well on all three of them.
Serving to stay in the tournament at 2-5, Murray held to love, but when Troicki then reached 30-0 in the next game, it seemed as though it would be the Eastern European who would have the winner's task of signing his name on a camera lens. But Troicki lost his serve by putting a drop-shot in the net.
Murray would break Troicki again for 6-5, and then, on his fourth match point, he smoked a superb cross-court backhand winner. Murray is still in the French Open. Just.
To call this a one-set, lunchtime 'shoot-out' would be to risk making this sound too cold and clinical, and it was certainly none of those things. This was a messy, uneven, ragged, extraordinary conclusion to a five-set, two-day match that Murray won won 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.
When Troicki was serving for the match at 5-3, and led 30-0 in that game, it seemed as though Murray's next assignment after leaving Court Suzanne Lenglen would be to prepare for the English grass-court season, rather than tomorrow's match at Roland Garros against Juan Ignacio Chela, an unseeded Argentine ranked 34 in the world, with the winner to go through to meet Spain's Rafael Nadal or Sweden's Robin Soderling.
On Monday evening, Murray had been two sets down and then a break down in the third, yet he rode out problems with his ankle and his mental approach to level the fourth-round match before it was stopped for the day because of the fading light, and when they returned to play a fifth set, he turned it around to win the last five games.
Though Murray was undoubtedly helped by a nervous Troicki fading away towards the close of this piece, this was a match that will be remembered for the way that Murray refused to countenance the idea that his clay-court season was over, and that he should start thinking about the grass.
So Murray is into the last eight at the French Open for the second time in his career, the previous occasion having been a couple of years ago when he was beaten by Chile's Fernando Gonzalez. Murray will probably never have a better opportunity to reach the semi-finals at this tournament than a match against Chela, who lost to Tim Henman in the last eight here seven years ago.
The first break of the fifth set came in the sixth game, which started with a strange episode involving one of the ball-kids. Troicki was about to hit an overhead when he realised there was a ball-boy getting under his feet – the confused teenager had thought the ball was going out, and had come to fetch it.
Troicki carried on with his shot and struck a winner and was enraged when the umpire decided that the point should be replayed. Perhaps, if Murray had been sporting, he could have given Troicki that point.
Serving to stay in the tournament at 2-5, Murray held to love, but when Troicki then reached 30-0 in the next game, it seemed as though it would be the Eastern European who would have the winner's task of signing his name on a camera lens. But Troicki lost his serve by putting a drop-shot in the net.
Murray would break Troicki again for 6-5, and then, on his fourth match point, he smoked a superb cross-court backhand winner. Murray is still in the French Open. Just.
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