Murray advances to quarterfinals

Associated Press

PARIS

Entertaining as his French Open quarterfinal might have been, Andy Murray hardly enjoyed the experience.

“When you’re out there,” Murray said, “I personally find it quite stressful.”

You don’t say?

Yelling at his entourage and muttering to himself, the No. 2-seeded Murray alternated between brilliant and bad for the better part of two sets while dealing with a French opponent and a partisan crowd Wednesday, before righting things to beat No. 9 Richard Gasquet 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 6-2 and reach his fourth semifinal at Roland Garros.

“I thought I did well, for the most part, in a tough atmosphere,” said Murray, whose next opponent is defending champion Stan Wawrinka, a 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (7) winner against 55th-ranked Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Murray had a much tougher time. He led 5-2 in each of the first two sets and got broken while serving for both at 5-3. Then he trailed 3-1 in the second-set tiebreaker, a critical moment.

“Had I won the second set,” Gasquet lamented later, “it would have been a totally different match.”

He didn’t, of course. After Murray’s ace made it 3-2, Gasquet got to a drop shot and wound up for what should have been an easy one-handed backhand, his signature shot. The ball clipped the net tape, though, allowing Murray a putaway for a winner.

That, basically, was that.

Hoping to see Gasquet become the first Frenchman to hoist the trophy since Yannick Noah in 1983, spectators urged him on with choruses of “Ree-shard!” They even loved a tremendous point Gasquet lost, when he wound up flat on his back, leaving his arms, legs, shirt, socks and shoes caked with the rust-colored dirt.

Murray’s white hat was smudged with clay, too. His entire being was smothered with angst.

He pointed at his temple. He screamed, “Hit it! Just hit it!” He looked up the folks in his guest box, including coach Jamie Delgado, and shouted various complaints, mostly craving more feedback.

Now he can regroup Thursday, when the quarterfinals in the top half of the men’s draw will be played: No. 1 Novak Djokovic against No. 7 Tomas Berdych, and No. 12 David Goffin against No. 13 Dominic Thiem. Their fourth-round matches began Tuesday and finished Wednesday.