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.

Today Andy Murray may have delivered on his expectations, but the same could not be said for many of the other seeds on a day of some major upsets.

Andy Roddick
The biggest upset on the men’s side was the departure of the two time finalist at SW19, Andy Roddick. The big serving American was beaten by an inspired Janko Tipsarevic in 4 sets 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 4-6 6-7 (4-7). Since Novak Djokovic’s departure yesterday, Tipsarevic is now the highest ranked Serb in the men’s draw and he is showing the world that there is more than Djokovic to Men’s Serbian tennis. After the match, Tipsarevic said,

This means the world to me, I’m just glad that I won and Serbia will have more representatives in the men’s singles draw

At last week’s Bootle’s event, Andy Murray narrowly beat Tipsarevic in an exhibition match played on grass. Tipsarevic will now play Dmitry Tursunov.

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal needed work hard to overcome the challange of Latvian teenager Ernest Gulbis. At Queens two weeks ago, Gulbis narrowly lost Andy Murray in three sets in the match that Murray picked up his thumb injury. Nadal needed to come back from a set down to beat the impressive Gulbis 5-7 6-2 7-6 (7-2) 6-3, Gulbis showing signs that he will soon be a top 20 player, with a little more consistency and fitness.

The Brits
Unfortunately the only British winner today was Andy Murray. British qualifier Chris Eaton was defeated in straight sets by Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-4 in one hour 56 minutes. The big serving Brit made a good fist of things in the first set and took it to a tie breaker, but Tursunov was just on a slightly higher level than Eaton and was outplayed much of the rest of the set. In the Ladies side, defending Wimbledon champion Venus Williams was pushed hard by the British number one Anne Keothavong, but after a spirited first 11 games Keothavong eventually was overturned by Williams 7-5 6-2.

Andy Murray is now the only Brit left in either singles draws.

Other upsets
9th seeded American James Blake continued his rather poor Wimbledon record continue when he stumbeled out 3-6 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 4-6 4-6 to German Rainer Schuettler. Blake has failed to make it past the third round In six appearances at the All England Club.

Andy Murray proved his Wimbledon fitness today as he was given a severe workout in his win over Janko Tipsarevic at Boodles exhibition match at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire.

Murray won the Boodles Challenge match 6-3 5-7 12-10 (Super tie break), his first competitive match since pulling out of his quarter final match with Andy Roddick at the Artois Championships at Queens Club. 

His injured thumb, the reason for with-drawl last week was still giving him some pain, after the match he said,

There were a few times when I mishit the ball that I felt the thumb, but I was able to play for around an hour and a half and it felt OK.

During the match Andy Murray survived match points against Janko Tipsarevic, who is ranked 40th in the world and almost upset Djokivic at Queens last week. 

Murray was also briefly in a fresh injury scare when Scot gave the crowd a scare when he slipped again and lay motionless for a moment, but fears were soon alleviated when he was soon back on his feet and smiling, saying “I’m OK”. After the match Murray added,

I have struggled a bit with the movement on the grass a bit this year, I don’t know if it the shoes.  want to make sure I do not get hurt, but it is tough when you are on the court and keep falling over, it makes it difficult to feel comfortable to chase down every ball, which is something which I normally want to do in my matches. I will try and sort it before I start Wimbledon.

Andy Murray’s attention will now switch the tournament that will be on everyone lips for the next 3 weeks. Murray will enter Wimbledon with all usual hype of the British press and despite some newspaper columnistsnow changing their mind at saying Murray will never be good enough to win Wimbledon, the fast majority will be building him up like he is the only one who will win. There is just no in between with the British press. After his Boodles Match Murray said on Wimbledon.

I will spend most of my time down at Wimbledon now, practising with some of the other guys in the tournament. It is about trying to get used to the courts down there, making sure my body is well rested and in good shape for the start of the tournament. The support you get there is unbelievable playing on Centre Court in front of 14,000 people.