Andy Murray’s father-in-law collapses at Australian Open

A mid-match medical emergency involving Ana Ivanovic’s coach – who is also the father of Andy Murray’s heavily pregnant wife Kim – caused concern and disruption on a dramatic evening at the Australian Open on Saturday.

Murray, whose wife Kim Sears is due to give birth to their first child next month, completed a 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-2 win over 32nd seed Sousa and was led straight from the court by an official rather than conduct the usual courtside interview.

‘My medical advice is that I will be allowed to leave the hospital shortly and I have been cleared to fly back to the United Kingdom in the next day or so, ‘ he said.

Television microphones picked up Ivanovic talking to chair umpire Felix Torralba that she thought the person being treated was her coach before play was eventually suspended.

After the match finally resumed, with both players showing great courage and composure, America’s Keys fashioned a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 come-from-behind win to reach the fourth round.

Murray, Ivanovic and Keys also cancelled their post-match press conferences.

Try as he may, Murray was unable to make much of an impression on the baseline play of his 33rd-ranked opponent, and in the ninth game the world number two lost his serve for a second time.

There was an unconfirmed report from ESPN that a defibrillator was used on the 58-year-old Sears before he was removed on a stretcher. “Then kind of just battled throughout the whole second set”, Keys said after the match.

Murray will now face Australia’s Bernard Tomic, seeded 16th, hopefully his father-in-law, Nigel Sears would have recovered after news broke that the old man collapsed at the Rod Laver Arena.

“But she didn’t have her best day, and I felt very good, so I think that’s why I won”.

“It was tricky, I didn’t feel I was in a great rhythm and wasn’t hitting the ball cleanly at the start”, he said later in a statement released by tournament organisers.

The Scot clearly took umbrage at dropping a set and raced through the next two to secure a 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-2 triumph at Melbourne Park.

“I just heard that Andy went directly to the hospital”.

This is Sears’ second spell working with Ivanovic after he was reappointed as her coach in July previous year.

The Serb appeared extremely concerned as she looked on, before the players were taken off court as doctors attended him on a stairway.

Chan Hao-ching played her opening mixed doubles match with partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus yesterday, the eighth seeds falling to a surprise 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 defeat to Sloane Stephens of the United States and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands in 79 minutes.

Kei Nishikori was the first male player through to the quarterfinals, beating No. 9-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in front of a partisan crowd filled with flag-waving Japanese fans.