After his excruciating opening matches against Stepanek and Bourgue, both going five sets, Murray seemed to regain his form from Rome and defeated the 27th seed Ivo Karlovic 6-1 6-4 7-6. Granted, Karlovic’s worst surface is definitely clay, but this is still a good practice against big servers, especially because Murray’s next opponent will be the American No. 1, John Isner. Isner struggled today with Teymuraz Gabashvili in tough five sets. With this match, Murray now lead this H2H seven to one over Karlovic.
“I was off to a quick start and against someone like Ivo, that’s important,” said Murray afterwards. “The quicker you can get it done the better. It gives me a chance to recover from the first few days, which is good. He fought right to the end. I was very glad to win the tiebreak and get off. The return is normally the strongest part of my game, but even so against him it’s not always up to you. When he serves well, you can’t do much. I tried to stay patient and take care of my own service games. Didn’t give him any break point opportunities. Very few unforced errors. So a lot of positives – and if you’re getting good looks on returns against Ivo, then there is a good chance moving forward that I will be getting good looks on other players’ serves.”
The defending champion from last year’s French Open, Stan Wawrinka also advanced to the Round of 16, defeating the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in straight sets 6-4 6-3 7-5. Wawrinka also has an impressive record against his opponent, winning all 5 of their matches. This was also the Swiss’ 7th match won in a row, winning a title in Geneva and reaching 4th round here. Wawrinka’s next opponent will be the 22nd seed Viktor Troicki, who easily upset the Frenchman seeded No. 14, Gilles Simon 6-4 6-2 6-2.
Kei Nishikori had to go through a much more struggle than other Top 8 seeds, defeating Fernando Verdasco in grueling five sets, 6-3 6-4 3-6 2-6 6-4 after 3 hours and 21 minutes. For two sets Verdasco was replicating his form from the Australian Open match against Nadal, but ended with a horrendous ratio of 53 winners to 65 unforced errors, ousting himself from the tournament
First of all, I’m very happy. Tough, tough five sets. He started playing much better in the third and fourth, and even in the first couple of games in final set, too. So it wasn’t easy,” conceded Nishikori. “I think I start hitting much better, deeper, and stepped in a little more. I think in the third and fourth sets, I let him use his forehand too much. Also, I have to say, he was playing good tennis. Even in the final set, too.”
Nishikori’s opponent in Round of 16 will be the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, in what seems like the most equally matched Round of 16 match. Gasquet won his match over Nick Kyrgios surprisingly easily 6-2 7-6(7) 6-2. Gasquet developed quite a rivalry, especially at grandslams. Gasquet is leading the head-to-head 5-2. Kyrgios won their match earlier this year, in the quarterfinals of Marseille.
“He’s been playing well,” Kyrgios said. “He’s obviously comfortable on that court. I mean, he’s got one of the best backhands in the world. I thought I might have overplayed it a little bit. But … I just didn’t play well at all. He played well.”
“Not easy,” Gasquet said, downplaying the scoreline. “You never know what could happen, if I’m losing the second set, another set. It could take a lot of confidence [away].Great for me to win against Nick in three sets. He’s one of the biggest players now, played very good the last two months. Of course it’s a big victory, especially for me on centre court at home with my crowd. It’s very nice for me.
Other matches played today were the 8th seed Milos Raonic putting a stop to the dream run of Andrej Martin, ranked 133rd, lucky loser from Slovakia. Raonic won 7-6 6-2 6-3. Raonic will not face a seeded player in Round of 16 either, as the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas upset the American Jack Sock in five sets to reach his best result at a Slam yet.
