Andy Murray advanced to the semifinals of the French Open 2014 tournament after outlasting Frenchman Gael Monfils in a thrilling five set match 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-0 that lasted three hours and 15 minutes. The match ended at 9:40 pm Paris time.
“It was a hard match,” said Murray. “Conditions changed quite a lot during it. It was extremely windy in the beginning, and then it was pretty calm at the end and very slow. It was obviously very cold at the end of the match.
“He really raised his game in the third set. I thought I played a pretty good third set. Fourth set wasn’t my best, but it was a fun match.”
Murray reached the same stage at this claycourt Slam back in 2011 where he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal. His next opponent on Friday – Nadal.
Nadal swept past David Ferrer to book his place in the semifinals and keep the hopes alive of retaining the world number one ranking.
“It’s definitely a big achievement, but that’s not what I came here to do,” Murray said. “I expect a lot of myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well at these events, and thankfully I have done okay so far. Still hopefully a long way to go in the tournament.”
Monfils admitted that losing the first game in the fifth set was significant to the loss.
“I didn’t win the first game when I was in a position to win it, and then I rushed it,” he said. “I tried my forehand and my shots were out, and then it went very fast.”
