Paris: Second seed Andy Murray reached the semi-finals
in Paris for a fourth time by battling back to defeat the last home hope
Richard Gasquet 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 6-0, 6-2. Reigning French Open champion Stan
Wawrinka, the 31-year-old third seed, became the oldest man since 1985 to reach
the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (9/7) win over Spain’s Albert
Ramos-Vinolas.
Murray leads his head-to-head 8-7 with Wawrinka but
the Swiss star has won their last three meetings as well as their only two
matches on clay.
Wawrinka is the oldest semi-finalist in Paris since
32-year-old Jimmy Connors in 1985. He was in complete control against world
number 55 Ramos-Vinolas, playing in his first quarter-finals at the majors,
firing an impressive 49 winners. “Overall, I played a good match with an
incredible level in the first two sets,” said Wawrinka. “I had to dig deep to
finish the match. To win in three sets, it’s ideal”’ he added.
Wawrinka, who beat Djokovic in last year’s final, will
be playing in only his second Roland Garros semi-final.
Top seed Djokovic reached the quarter-finals for the
tenth time by defeating 14th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. The
29-year-old Serb will on Thursday take on Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, who
beat Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.Djokovic has a 23-2 career
stranglehold on Berdych who will be playing in his third Roland Garros
quarter-final.
It will be the top seed’s 28th consecutive Grand Slam
quarter-final and 36th in all. Djokovic also crossed the $100 million prize
money barrier on Wednesday.
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