It took Andy Murray four sets to win his third round match but he would be happy that he did not go down the path of former Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick. Murray beat Ivan Ljubicic in four sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 to advance to the last 16 stage.
Murray will now play Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who had no difficulty in trouncing Simone Bolelli, in straight sets. The two have played in eight matches and both have won four apiece.
Murray had a chance to serve out the match when he led 5-3 in the fourth set under the roof, but failed to do so. The set went into the tie-breaker and he finally won thanks to the unforced errors that his 32-year old Croat made.
After the match, Murray said, “I felt like I played very good tennis from the back of the court tonight. I just needed to serve better. And I returned pretty well and I moved really good. So that’s a step in the right direction. It was much better than my last match.”
Earlier, Andy Roddick was blown away from the third round of Wimbledon by Feliciano Lopez of Spain. The first two sets went into the tie-breaker, which was won by Lopez, who then broke Roddick in the third set before serving out the match. Lopez could now face Gael Monfils if he can live up to his seeding in his third round match.
In the women’s section of the draw, Daniela Hantuchova was beaten in three sets by Victoria Azarenka while Petra Kvitova made it through to the fourth round as well. 12-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova became another high-ranked player to be knocked out but Venus Williams wasted no time in bulldozing Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0, 6-2.
The biggest upset, however, came in the form of the ousting of Vera Zvonareva, the second seeded player this year. She went down to Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-3.
In some of the third round matches to be played on Saturday, Caroline Wozniacki will play Jarmila Gajdosova while both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer play their respective matches as well. Nadal takes on Gilles Muller while Federer will play David Nalbandian in a lip-smacking encounter.