Andy Murray has swatted away yet another hard-serving giant, beating both Ivo Karlovic and John Isner in straight sets with only one tiebreak. Murray continued to dominate against big servers, as he has a 13-0 combined head-to-head against Karlovic and Isner. Isner was really returning well and pushing Murray and even developed two break points on Murray’s serve, but they didn’t yield. Isner’s serve was unstoppable until the tiebreak. Murray took a quick lead of 3-0, but Isner was the one with a set point at 6-5. After Murray equaled to 6-6, the rain started coming down more heavily. Both players had 2 more set points, but Murray was the one who took the set.
“It was very important, it was a very close set, it could have gone either way. he had a few more chances than me. I got a bit lucky on the set point that he had and guessed the right way on a short forehand pass” Murray commented on his first set.
The rain continued through the beginning of the second set, until the match was stopped at 2-1 for Murray. When the players returned to the court, a long game followed on Isner’s serve, and gave Murray two break points. Murray had a break point in the next Isner’s service game as well, and it seemed like the American’s serve was prone to break. Murray put Isner under pressure at 5-4, got to a break point at 30-40 and took the set 6-4. Murray broke to 3-1, and had some break point chances to end the match sooner, but he still kept his cool and brought the match to an end.
With this match, Andy Murray has reached his 6th Roland Garros quarterfinal, breaking Fred Perry’s record for Great Britain. Isner was very close to ending the Roland Garros drought for American men, but with this loss still no American has reached quarterfinals of this tournament since 2003.
