Murray overcomes ‘stressful few days’ to reach Australian Open last eight

Four-time finalist Murray beat No.32 Joao Sousa 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and signed some autographs but skipped the customary on-court interview before leaving Margaret Court Arena on Saturday night to check on the welfare of Sears, the father of his pregnant wife. The incident had shaken him up, he said, but he was now pleased the 58-year-old was on his way home.

Ana Ivanovic’s third-round match at the Australian Open was suspended after coach Nigel Sears collapsed.

“Sort of the day after I went to the hospital for a few hours, and after that just came back to practice here in the afternoon”.

“I feel truly grateful to everyone involved for the manner in which this has been handled”. The Serb looked visibly distressed before she and Keys went off court about 10 minutes after play was halted.

Thee Scot, who had never lost to the Portuguese in six previous meetings, broke twice to win the first set easily but stalled in the second.

“It was tough. Obviously it depended on Nigel’s health obviously”, Murray told the media after defeating Tomic.

Tomic is the only Australian left in the main draw of the men’s singles and will have firmly have the crowd behind him when he meets the second seed.

There is no doubting Tomic’s talent.

Five years have passed since the world number 16 made his breakthrough run at SW19 and only now does he seem to be making positive progress. In July previous year he was arrested in Miami after a loud party and hit out at the Australian Tennis authorities.

Tomic responded in kind, saying that Federer is not on the level of world number one Novak Djokovic.

“It also motivates me”.

“I m pretty happy with the way I m playing”. My ranking has to get there.

“It’s a tough match [against Ferrer] and he played a great match against Lleyton [Hewitt] in the second round and 100% it’s not going to be an easy match and he makes you work hard”. I just can’t believe something like that happened. “It’s about being consistent”.

“He’s been good, but then top-10 is another story”, Federer said earlier this month.

“Andy loves playing players that attack”.

“I didn’t think it was that straightforward”.

Murray admitted he felt drained during the match on Monday, which he won 6-4 6-4 7-6 to set up a last eight encounter with David Ferrer.

The 26-year-old forced a tiebreaker, only for Tomic to take a 4-0 lead after a pair of aces.