Murray To Meet Gasquet In Fourth Round

© AFP/Getty ImagesMurray advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon for the fifth time Friday evening.

World No. 4 Andy Murray defeated Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) in the third round of the 125th Wimbledon Championships Friday evening, under the roof on Centre Court.

With Murray serving for the match up 5-4 in the fourth set, Ljubicic raised his level of play, forcing the Scot to close out the match in a tie-break. The British hopeful broke Ljubicic five times, winning 41 per cent of his points on return, and improves to 4-3 against the Croat, taking three of their past four meetings.

“I thought it was an excellent match,” said Murray. “Played one bad game, well, the first game of the second set was a bad game. Apart from that, I thought it was a very high standard. Both of us played well. A lot of good rallies. I felt like I hit the ball from the back of the court way better than the last match.”

With the win, Murray reaches the second week of The Championships for the fifth time in six appearances, having advanced to the semi-finals the past two seasons. He’ll play 17th-seeded Richard Gasquet on Monday. The two played a classic in the fourth round at the All England Club three years ago; up two sets and serving for the match, Gasquet was poised to knock out the local favourite, but Murray dug deep to defeat the Frenchman in five to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.

Murray also rallied from two sets down to defeat Gasquet in the first round of Roland Garros last year, and admitted, “It's good to have in the back of my mind when I go in against him in a match like this. Even if I go behind, I can come back against him. That will be, I think for him, a tough thing. It's happened twice in big matches against me.”

Gasquet continued to impress at SW19, cruising past Simone Bolelli 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes. “I wanted to be aggressive and to lead the game… I played well today,” assessed Gasquet. “I played two very good sets, and after I felt a little bit pressure. But I finished the match with a good serve.”

The Frenchman, appearing at Wimbledon for the first time since 2008, has not lost a set in his first three matches. Against Bolelli, Gasquet won 77 per cent of his first serve points, firing 12 aces along the way. The Italian was encumbered by 35 unforced errors, dropping to a 0-4 record against Gasquet. “I'm playing good. I'm 13 in the world, so I'm improving my level every week,” Gasquet said.

A semi-finalist in 2007, Gasquet is looking to reach his second major quarter-final; the 25 year old has lost in the round of 16 of Grand Slam events eight times.

Visit Official Wimbledon Web Site