On a gloriously warm Thursday it took Andy Murray – still the world No2, despite the mischief making of Roger Federer before the players’ party last Sunday – two hours and 33 minutes to quieten the unique challenge of the Frenchman Benoît Paire, 2-6, 7-5, 7-5. In the quarter-finals on Friday he must beat a steadily resurgent Milos Raonic, who survived his own Riviera hell against Damir Dzumhur, winning 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in similar time on Court des Princes.
Following Murray on to Court Rainier III, Rafael Nadal won in straight sets, but there was nothing straightforward about his struggle of two hours and three minutes, as the increasingly impressive Austrian Dominic Thiem drew every ounce of effort out of the Spaniard. Nadal’s 7-5, 6-3 win puts him in good shape to play Stan Wawrinka, who dismissed the normally stubborn Gilles Simon for the loss of only three games.
There is less of the “normal”, less of the status quo about the game now. Upsets lurk in all parts of the draw, as the world No1, Novak Djokovic, discovered on Wednesday, when his concentration dipped and Jiri Vesely, 55 in the ATP rankings, took his chances.
As Murray put it later: “Novak was a little bit off, but Vesely served well, made a ton of balls, didn’t give too many unforced errors up. If you’re not quite on your game, and someone’s serving big, not giving you too many opportunities, it’s tough at this level.
“Novak’s had phenomenal success and consistency over the last year or so. But, when you’re not at your best, sometimes you can’t quite turn it around. Vesely deserved to win.”
Pointedly, Gaël Monfils, not the game’s most consistent performer, dismissed Vesely 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday. But Murray would not agree there was rejoicing in the locker room after Djokovic’s defeat. The Tour is too much of a rollercoaster for that. He had not had that discussion with other players anyway, he said, as he was concentrating on his own preparation.
“To be honest, it doesn’t seem that different,” he said of the mood. “I wasn’t in the locker room when he lost, and I was the first person in there this morning at 7.30am. So I didn’t see many guys before or after.
“Obviously it gives guys in the top half an opportunity, as well. Someone like Monfils obviously will have a decent chance to have a good run here. But on my side of the draw, it affects nothing unless you reach the final. It’s kind of irrelevant for us.”
As for his own tennis, he knows he was not at his best but that made victory over Paire, an unconventional if fragile shot-maker who suffers from stress before nearly every match, all the sweeter. Murray said it was important to fight for each point – and let everyone else know that he was prepared to do so, regardless of the state of the game.
“It’s good to show all of the players that when you’re behind in the score, you’re always fighting and trying to find a way to get back into the match,” he said. “It doesn’t win you every match, but it can win you a couple of matches through the year, just through fighting and your opponents thinking that you’re going to be there and giving 100% right until the end of the match.
“To win from 6-2, 3-0 down, two breaks, when you’re not playing particularly well, it’s a great effort. It would have been easy to lose today and get down on myself. But I kept fighting right the way through to the end.
“The second set was full of ups and downs. I didn’t feel like in the third that was the case so much. I broke him twice, he broke me once. But it was a good one to get through. I could have easily lost today.”
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