Murray shrugs off torn tendon to reach quarter-finals

The match had to be completed yesterday after the Scot had fought back from two sets and a break down on Monday evening to tie things up.

The one-set shoot-out on Court Suzanne Lenglen seemed to be going Troicki’s way when the Serb moved to 30-0 serving at 5-3 but a combination of nerves and some gutsy play from Murray helped him chalk up five games in a row to win 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5.

The Scot had begun the match by losing five straight games as he battled to overcome an ankle injury sustained in his previous win over Michael Berrer, and he revealed yesterday he is playing with a torn tendon. Murray, who joked in a TV interview he had “more pills in me than Ozzy Osbourne”, said: “The day and a half before the match was pretty tough. It was pretty stressful and tiring before I went on the court. And then today was tougher than yesterday. I was really nervous.

“It was funny, after the points I was getting so tired in my legs and so out of breath. I wasn’t even hitting the ball hard and was hardly doing any running. I think it was just nerves, and the windy conditions didn’t help.

“But once I went behind again, I loosened up a little bit, started going for my shots more and got through it. Emotionally it was pretty challenging.

“I don’t think many people recover from a sprained ankle and a tear in a tendon in two days. I was told to stay off my feet totally the day in between the matches. I was given crutches which I didn’t use because I didn’t know how to.

“I didn’t know how was it going to be until I went onto the court. The fact that I recovered well enough to play was probably the best point for me. I haven’t really been in this position before in a slam.

“I managed to come back from a situation that on another day or another tournament I might not have been able to, so I was proud of that.”

Murray will now face unseeded Juan Ignacio Chela today.

Gael Monfils lost 4-6 3-6 6-7 (3-7) to Roger Federer.

Defending champion Francesca Schiavone will face France’s Marion Bartoli tomorrow for a place in the French Open final.

Fifth seed Schiavone hit back from a set and 4-1 down to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1-6 7-5 7-5 while Bartoli ended the hopes of 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova last night, running out a 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 winner on Court Suzanne Lenglen.