Britain’s Olympic chances of a medal in the doubles event took a boost this evening (early morning in the UK) as Jamie and Andy Murray overcame a rusty start to win their opening match at the Toronto Masters.

The Scottish duo were playing the French pairing of Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Mahut and dispatched them in just over an hour, 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.

The brothers got off to the worst possible start losing their serve in the opening game, but the French team could not close out the set and in a repeat of that third set at wimbledon, the Murray’s broke back at 5-4 and went on to win the tie-break.

The second set was much easier affair for Andy and Jamie, they secured two early breaks to go up 5-1. The breaks coming from the only two break oportunities they had in the second set. From there they  wrapped up the set in quick time. After the match Jamie said,

It was a great match, really good fun to play in. There were plenty of good rallies, especially in the tie-break. We managed to step things up in the second set, and got ourselves a couple of quick breaks, which really helped. Have to say thanks to the British fans who came out to watch, there were lots of them!

Their next match should be a lot tougher as they face one of the doubles specialist teams, second seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic in the next round. A team that will not need to worry about at next months Olympics.

What a match! What a match! Andy Murray put 2 and 3/4 sets of poor tennis behind him and made a fairy tale comeback to reach his first ever Grand Slam quarter final at Wimbledon, completing an amazing match against Richard Gasquet to win 5-7 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 6-4.

Just as the sun was about to set tonight Andy Murray wrapped up the most unlikely of comebacks when it had looked like the sun was setting on Andy Murray’s Wimbledon just a few hours earlier. When down 2 sets and Gasquet up a break serving for the match, the young fiery Scot stepped up and turned the match around from what looked like a complete un-winnable position.

After a tentative start by both players, Gasquet began to take control of the match, as Murray continued to falter Gasquet flourished. At 6-5 with Murray serving to stay in the first set, Gasquet managed a few break points, in what will go down as one of the most charged games ever on centre court, a pumped up Murray began to show some signs of improvement as he saved break point after break point, but it wasn’t enough and Gasquet eventually broke to win the set. An early break followed in the second and it looked as if we were heading for a Brit Free Wimbledon!

At 4-4 with Murray serving, those fears were being realised as Murray lost his serve for the third time in the match and Gasquet took a 5-4 lead and would serve for the match. If Murray was to stay in this match he would have to break now for the first time in the match. A mixture of good shots from Murray and unforced errors by Gasquet, that looked very possibly as Murray rushed to 0-40 lead and three break points. Gasquet saved two and Murray’s chance of a comeback were looking less likely. Now the turning point. Gasquet served a double fault and handed the break back to Murray.

The pair would both hold serve and tie break would decide the third match. An obvious tight Gasquet began to make mistakes and Murray raced to 3-0 lead with two mini-breaks. Gasquet would get 1 back and bring the score back to 4-3. This is when Murray stepped up and played his best consistent tennis of the match yet, to win the next three points.

Murray carried his form into the fourth set and this coupled with a mis-firing Gasquet allowed Murray to gain two breaks of serve and win the set 6-2.

After a “comfort break” from Gasquet that was met with a round of boos from a pumped out Wimbledon crowd. The tactic of using his comfort break did no favours for Gasquet, Murray broke the Frenchman in his opening service game and now serving well Murray would be difficult for Gasquet to break back. This proved to be the case and the eighth seed didn’t get another break point in the match. 

After 3 hours and 56 minutes of the most intense tennis Murray got his first match point on the Gasquet serve in the tenth game, though he wouldn’t win the match on this point. Gasquet forced Murray to serve for the match and Murray did not disappoint the Wimbledon crowd who had been through a major roller-coaster of a match, dare we compare to Henman Wimbledon match! He would get his second match point on the 4 hour mark and finished off the match with a big serve down the middle.

After the match Murray said,

The light was tough at the end and I wanted to try to finish the match, That was the best moment I’ve ever had on a tennis court. To come back from two sets to love and win it is an awesome feeling. The crowd got behind me just when I needed it and to have them behind me was a privilege. I think he got a bit nervous towards the end of third set. I had to keep fighting, he was completely outplaying me and once I won that third set his head went down and I kind of ran away with it

Murray now faces the easy task of Rafael Nadal in the Quarter finals, I’m sure he will in win 3 sets or maybe not  – watch this space for what will likely be another fantastic match.

Andy Murray will today attempt to win again at Wimbledon and for the first time in his career reach at grand slam quarter final. Murray will take on French 8th seed Richard Gasquet on centre court, the 4th round match will be the third match on meaning the match will likely begin around 5pm. 

Murray has reached the 4th round of a grand slam on 4 previous occasions, twice at the US open and once at the Australian open and here at Wimbledon 2 years ago when he lost to Marcos Baghdatis.

Richard Gasquet has allready made been as far as the Wimbledon semi finals when he lost to Roger Federer last year, this is his only notable grand slam result.

These two players could hardly be more evenly matched in stats, Murray is 11th and Gasquet is 10th in the world rankings, both have won 5 career titles and they both have very similar grand slam results (excluding last year’s Wimbledon that Murray missed), 4th rounds at US open and OZ open and poor results at Rolland Garros.

The two have met previously on two occasions and unfortunately for Murray Gasquet his won them both. Their last encounter was at the ATP Masters Series event in Paris at the end of last year in three sets 6-3 0-6 6-4. Their first meeting was in 2006 in Canada at another ATP Masters Series event, Gasquet won in two sets 6-2 7-5.

Andy Murray and Daniel Vallverdu will enter the doubles competition as wild cards to this year’s Stella Artois Championships at Queens Club.

Vallverdu is a long term friend of Andy Murray and the 22 year old has only ever played 4 singles matches and 3 doubles matches on the main ATP tour. Is current record on ATP singles matches stands at won 1 lost 3 and for doubles it fairs better at won 2 lost 1. His other matches coming on the futures and challengers tour, where his win record is approx 50%.

Daniel Vallverdu though does bring much Davis Cup experience to the table having played 8 rubbers over 6 seperate ties for Venezuela despite actually being born in Valencia, Spain.

The duo have been paired against French pair Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Mahut. Gasquet was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year and returns to tennis after missing the French open last month and Mahut was runner up in the singles event here last year.

Murray and Vallverdu have never played together before and Gasguet and Mahut are both good grass court player, so we are right not to expect much. Though even with the odds stacked against them, this will actually be a really important match for Andy Murray. It’s his first match on British Soil this year, first ATP match on Grass since Wimbledon 2 years ago.