Andy Murray swore a little, sweated a lot and, when it was done, allowed himself the smallest smile for beating Jérémy Chardy on Monday. It was a victory as sweet for where it takes him – into the quarter-finals of the French Open for the fourth time – as for the mild retribution he inflicted on an opponent with whom he probably would not want to share a dinner for two.
He won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in just under three hours but made life slightly difficult for himself by not taking two wonderful chances in the second set that would have shortened his workload considerably before the much tougher assignment that awaits him on Wednesday against David Ferrer.
“Throughout the course of the match I was creating many more opportunities than him,” Murray said. “I wasn’t overly concerned. I just had to take my chances when they came. I did that in the third and fourth sets.”
He did not do it when Chardy first looked like collapsing in the second: over 15 minutes at the start when the Frenchman survived nine deuce points, three double faults and saved three break points; then, after breaking Murray, holding with only a pair of deuces for 3-1.
Chardy saw the match a little differently: “There were moments when I thought he was doubting himself and he was not feeling that well. He started panicking a little. During the second set, the first two service games, he had so many opportunities to break. He didn’t and I managed to remain strong. Then I broke him, kept my break and won the set. I broke him immediately at the beginning of the third. After that I made some silly mistakes.”
Chardy said beforehand he did not like it that Murray withdrew in Rome, claiming fatigue, after beating him in his only match. “We all get tired,” he said, adding that, if he went on to win at Roland Garros, maybe it was the right decision. So, how did he see Murray’s chances now?
“My favourite for the title is Djokovic, second is always Nadal. Murray’s just behind them. He defeated Nadal in Madrid – so he can beat them, that’s true. But at the end of the tournament it depends on the matches they will have played, who is going to have more energy. But he’s one of the best outsiders for me.”
Murray can park Chardy in the past and look forward to Ferrer, whom he has not beaten in their four matches on clay. “I’m sure both of us will have changed [since they last met on the surface three years ago] and probably have improved. I feel like I have a better understanding of how I need to play on this surface than I did back then..”
While Chardy handed Murray 66 allegedly free points, through 10 double faults and 56 unforced errors (although that statistic is sometimes open to interpretation), Ferrer will be a more stubborn, orthodox barn-door of a proposition.
“It’s going to be tough,” Murray said. “On this surface he’s one of the top four or five players in the world. He’s made a final here and some semis. And the higher-ranked players you play the fewer opportunities they give you, the fewer mistakes they give you, especially in important moments. I’m going to have to be very patient.”
His patience let him down a couple of times against Chardy – possibly because of the tension between them after Rome – and he said later he still struggles to control his swearing.
“I’m much better now than I was. But often when we go for our towels, the microphone is right there and you forget where you are sometimes.
“In football the language they use is not that pleasant all the time but the camera is not on them all the time either. I would rather I didn’t do it but, unfortunately, it’s one of the mistakes I make as a human being. I do try to be better.”
While his immediate challenge is Ferrer, Murray has been keeping an eye on Roger Federer who breezed past Gaël Monfils in their postponed match on Monday and has by some way had the easier passage into the second week.
“If he can get past Stan [Wawrinka, in the quarter-finals on Tuesday], he’s coming up against either Kei [Nishikori] or Jo-Wilfried [Tsonga]. Jo has played in a slam final and so has Kei. But the difference in experience at this stage of an event, Roger trumps them comfortably. And he hasn’t used up too much energy. Playing the match against Gaël over two days, maybe that helps.
“I’m sure he will go into the match with Stan fairly fresh. There is absolutely no reason why he couldn’t win the event. But anyone who wants to win this event is going to have to play great tennis because of the level of the field that’s still left in it.”
And that includes one very fine player from Scotland, the owner now of 17 straight wins in quarter-finals of majors he’s participated in. As he pointed out, there are few ahead of him in that regard, including Federer, who has 36 semi-final appearances. “I’m playing against guys that make some of the things I have done look pretty average because of how good they have been,” he said.
“Pretty average” is not a description many people would use to describe what Murray has done in tennis even if, against Chardy, he dipped maybe to just “very good”.
For the record Federer heads the Open era list for consecutive quarter-final appearances with 36, followed by Jimmy Connors (27), Djokovic (24), Murray (17), Ivan Lendl (14), Bjorn Borg (12) and Pete Sampras (10). So he is mixing in pretty good company.
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