Andy Murray was strolling in the afternoon sun towards what was shaping up as one of his easiest victories to reach a quarter-final of a big tournament when Fabio Fognini decided to play some tennis. Murray, coming from 0-3 down in the third set, ultimately tamed the wild wind and the even wilder Italian to win 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, and is three wins away from a second Olympic gold medal. But the minor genius from San Remo delivered the Scot his first moments of genuine anxiety.
“I hadn’t won a game for 40 to 45 minutes which doesn’t happen too often,” Murray said of his eight-game losing stretch until he turned it around in the third. “The conditions were making it very, very hard and once I got the momentum I went with it and that was it.” Only Murray could make repairing a disaster sound like fixing a leaking tap.
After a quarter of an hour Murray went 4-0 up without a hint of the resistance to come, not that one would know it from Fognini’s demeanour; he is one of the game’s most insouciant practitioners.
If it were La Scala he would have been booed off the stage. As it happened, the crowd jeered sarcastically for each of Fognini’s 13 winners in the first set (only six of them off his own racket) and a dip of concentration by Murray saved him from the dreaded bagel.
Then came that tennis rarity: a sustained Fognini fightback, rich with flashing winners on either flank, fist pumps and passion. If he could be bothered to play like this all the time, what a force he would be.
Murray had not lost more than three games in a set in his two impressive wins but a lazy forehand cost him his serve for the second time. When Fognini passed him with a superb crosscourt backhand to take the second set a sunbathing pit morphed into Circus Maximus.
When he went 3-0 up in the third, delirium set in. “Let’s go Murray, let’s go!” rang around the arena.
But a botched backhand handed Murray a break and the world No2 was back in business at 2-3.
After more than two hours of intense, absorbing tennis Fognini, who had been so close to the upset, was serving to stay in the tournament. Murray, steeled to the task, grabbed three match points and Fognini handed him the win with one final undisciplined flail of his magic racket. Murray, who had barked at his box in the tight moments, looked mightily relieved.
Earlier the American Steve Johnson, Murray’s opponent in the quarters, needed only 64 minutes to take care of the Russian Evgeny Donskoy, for the loss of a game in each set.
In their only meeting, at the Shanghai Masters last year, Murray beat Johnson 6-2, 6-4 on a court only marginally quicker than this one. But the 26-year-old Californian, 22 in the world and inside the top 50 for nearly two years, has had a decent season. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon where Roger Federer beat him in three sets. However, like many outside the elite, he struggles for consistency. It would be a major shock if he were to beat Murray.
It still looks as if the Scot will play Rafael Nadal in the final. The Spaniard, returning here after nearly 10 weeks out because of a worrying injury to his left wrist, had dropped only nine games against Federico Delbonis and Andreas Seppi, but had to work harder on Thursday to beat the stubborn Frenchman Gilles Simon 7-6, 6-3. The 2008 gold medallist – who did not play in London four years ago – has yet to lose a singles match at the Olympics.
On a day bathed in sun and wind again after rain had wiped out Wednesday’s programme, the first set took an hour and a quarter, the second 46 minutes.
The elements have thus condemned Nadal playing two matches in one day – with the doubles to follow – but he did not appear to be saving much against Simon, one of the hardest workers on the circuit. That potent Nadal left wrist, which finally gave up on him after two matches of the French Open, looks strong again.
Next up is Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci, the world No 54, who upset the Belgian David Goffin 7-6, 6-4 in a struggle that lasted just under two hours.
Juan Martín del Potro, having put Novak Djokovic out in the first round, might yet block Nadal’s path to the final, although the California-based Japanese Taro Daniel took a set off him before the Argentinian prevailed 6-7, 6-1, 6-2.
In the quarter-finals he plays Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, who found the experienced Belgian, Gilles Müller, hard to break down over the hour and a half it lasted. Agut, the 10th seed, had to save three break points in the second set before winning 6-4, 7-6.
