Andy Murray has reached the 4th round of French Open at Roland Garros for the first time in his career after Janko Tipsarevic retired in their third round match with Murray leading 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

Andy Murray once again produced another back from the dead performance to save two set points and hit back from two breaks of serve down in the first set  to win the set on a tie breaker 7 points to 3.

Tipseravic lead 5-2 after breaking Murray in two consecutive games. Murray saved two set points at 40-15 with Tipseravic serving and only inches saved the Scot as Tipseravic volleyed into the top of the net. Murray though secured the first break back after the world number 3 upped his game and some cracks appeared in Tipseravic, Murray held serve and broke the again to level everything at 5-5.

The match had very little rhythm and with most folks expecting Murray go on to win the set comfortably, the Scot was broken again by the Serb and Tipseravic had another chance to serve for the set. No set points for Tipseravic this time, but the same result, Murray breaks back and the set would be decided on a tie break. Murray’s serve held firm and the Scot secured the breaker 7-3.

Murray broke in the first game of the second set and Tipservic started to show visible signs of pain, the trainers were called and the Serb recievd a massage on his upper leg / hip / thigh area. Whatever the trainer did, seem to do teh trick as the  Tipseravic was able to hit back and recover the break of serve.

The recovery was cut short and Murray pressed on to secure another break and the likely hood of Tipseravic retiring looked to be rising. Giving credit to Tipseravic he fought his way to the end of second as the pain he was suffering appeared to intensive. The match was halted as Murray secured his sixth break of serv for the match and the second set.

Andy Murray will now face 13th seed Marin Cilic in the fourth round, Cilic beat Radek Stepanek 6-1 7-6 6-3 earlier in the day.

This is Murray’s third year at Roland Garros and is his best performance to date after reaching the third round last year and suffering a 1st round knock out back in 2006. He missed the 2007 French Open due to a wrist injury.

Andy Murray has come out top of a list of gay icons in tennis. The young Scot now has is third title of the year to add to his two ATP tennis title he has already won this year.

The poll was conducted for dating site ‘gay-PARSHIP.co.uk’, they asked users to vote for their top male tennis pin ups. Spokesman Adrain Gillian said

He is slightly vulnerable. And there’s also something sexy about that Scottish accent

The fiery Murray topped a poll by gay Brits, beating Aussie Mark Philippoussis into second place by 4 percent. The 3rd, 4th and 5th positions were grabbed by Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, respectively in the list of ‘Top 5 Male Tennis Pin-Ups’.

Andy Murray appeared on Soccer AM  on Sky One (& Sky Sports 1) this morning. This was the young tennis star’s thrid appearance on the show and was presented with a hat-trick trophy from Helen Chamberlain and Andy Goldstein the current presenters of the show.

Andy Murray doesn’t really fit into the stuffy world of tennis, the majority of the UK journalists don’t really get Murray, but on a show like Soccer Am, I think he is lot more comfortable and his dry humour understood a little more. He still looks like his dog has just died, but this is just Andy.

On the show the tennis ace revealed he and Tim Henman are still friends, despite Henman’s comments describing Murray as a ‘miserable git’. Henman also went onto to say that Murray would have to improve his temperament if he ever wants to win Wimbledon. But Murray told Andy and Helen that there was no problem between himself and Henman:

It’s funny because I spoke to him about a week ago,” explained Murray. “I speak to him every couple of weeks on the phone and then he text me saying ‘ sorry if I’ve caused you any extra aggravation by calling you a miserable git’!  I text him back and said ‘there’s no problem telling the truth’! So it wasn’t really a problem.

You can see what else Murray had to say with this five minute clip of the show here - Andy Murray Soccer AM

Murray also showed his footballing skills again, a few times he has played keepy up with tennis balls on court and today he scored in the “Hollywood shootout”.

I found this video on YouTube earlier today.  It is the US Open Series promotion video bloopers.  Take a look - it’s pretty funny!  Like it says in the title, it’s just as well they are talented…

His pet hates are: slow eating, burping and smoking 

His favourite subject at school was maths

Andy has a purply, stunted nail on the ring finger of his left hand which never really grows in properly – it just snaps off.  This is from the day when Andy first beat his older brother Jamie in a significant tennis match – the under 12′s final at Solihull.  When they were on the minibus on the way home Andy was teasing Jamie about having beaten him.  He was sitting behind Jamie and had his hand over the seat when Jamie turned round and smashed Andys hand with his fist.  By the time they got home it had swelled up and he had to be taken to the doctors to get an injection as it had become infected.

Murraymound was the Macmillian English Dictionary Word of the Week from the 30th June 2006 (following his success at Wimbledon that year).

In November of 2006 Andy allowed his fans to choose his next hairstyle out of four do’s.  These were:

• short at the back, messy on top
• a grade four buzz-cut all over
• trimmed and thinned but kept longish
• cut it himself (again)

His nickname is Muzcat.  But when he atended the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona he was nicknamed ‘Lazy English’.

Andy has had a big effect on British tennis already; there are now five British kids among the worlds top 50 junior players.

He is sponsored by the watch company Tag Heuer, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Perry clothes and Head Prestige rackets.

Andy swore at the match official in the team Davis Cup competition after a four-set loss to Serbia and Montenegro in the Davis Cup competition in Glasgow in April 2006.  This got him a £1,400 fine against the British team which was the first time it had been fined for player misconduct in the 106 years that the UK has entered the Davis Cup competition.

He supports Hibernian Football Club.

In 2006, Andy was accused of being ‘anti-English’ when he was reported to have said that he would support ‘anyone who played against England’ in the World Cup.  However this reponse was really just a joke after an English reporter had asked him if he would be supporting Scotland in the World Cup while knowing full well that Scotland had not qualified for the tournament.

Andy now has a firm friendship with Tim Henman, who apparently has been a massive influence on him and is the first person he turns to for advice.

See a fun quick fire Q&A session with Andy Murray at YouTube