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Andy Murray has reached the quarter-finals of the French Open as the world number one dispatched Karen Khachanov 6-3 6-4 6-4. The Brit was at times tested by his opponent but overall was too strong throughout the encounter, producing a clinical performance to comfortably progress.
Even though Khachanov displayed his devastating tennis at times to trouble the Brit, Murray’s steady form was keeping the Russian at bay and one crucial break was enough for the world number one to seize the opening set.
The second set saw Murray maintain his solid form, gaining the early break to establish a 3-1 lead. Despite the Russian clawing the deficit back to 3-3 though, the world number one responded in the following game and capitalised on his opponent’s errors to regain the break. This time, Murray did not let up and swiftly closed out the set to take a firm grip on the match.
Just like in the second set, the Brit took control early on in the third set as well with the break but Khachanov refused to lie down, utilising his powerful groundstrokes to reduce the deficit. The Russian did manage to peg his opponent back for 4-4, but it was only a brief respite as the world number one made a timely break in the following game, before confidently serving out the victory.
In the quarter-finals, Murray will face either Fernando Verdasco or Kei Nishikori.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem progressed with straight sets wins but Milos Raonic suffered defeat in an epic five set loss to Pablo Carreno Busta, going down 6-4 6-7 7-6 4-6 6-8.
On the women’s side, Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina went through, but Venus Williams is out of the tournament as Timea Bacsinszky beat the American 5-7 6-2 6-1. However, the biggest shock of the tournament came when, in front of a raucous home crowd, Kristina Mladenovic ended Garbine Muguruza’s hopes of retaining her title as the Frenchwoman triumphed 6-1 3-6 6-3. In addition, Caroline Wozniacki also reached the quarter-finals with a three set win over Svetlana Kuznetsova.
