Ana Ivanovic’s coach collapses, rushed to hospital at Australian Open

Sears coaches Ana Ivanovic and was watching her match against American Madison Keys when he collapsed – though Jamie Murray confirmed he was “conscious, talking and sitting up”.

Nigel Sears, 58, collapsed at Rod Laver Arena during Ivanovic’s match with Madison Keys, and needed emergency treatment as the shocked players and thousands of fans looked on.

At the time of the incident Andy Murray was playing his match against 32nd seed Joao Sousa on the Margaret Court Arena less than 100 meters away.

After spending two hours and 40 minutes on court, the Scot recorded 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over the Portuguese player and will take on the victor of the match between Aussie pair Bernard Tomic and John Millman for a spot in the quarter-finals.

“I thought the third set she served better than me”. I didn’t feel I was in a great rhythm and wasn’t hitting the ball cleanly at the start.

The Ivanovic-Keys match was interrupted for about an hour by the distressing incident, with both players given the option not to continue, but choosing to resume. “All of Canada, and I’m sure the world, is behind you”, said an emotional Raonic, who was close to tears as he addressed the crowd after his match. “Obviously a little bit disappointed”.

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

Murray’s match wasn’t stopped, but word filtered through.

Sears underwent tests on Saturday night but was in good enough shape to ask for a TV so he could watch Ivanovic’s three-set loss to Keys.

“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.

The match between pre-Open champions – Raonic beat Roger Federer for the Brisbane title while Troicki won Sydney – created some stress for Raonic as he took to the court after hearing the tragic news that took place Friday in La Loche, Sask.

She trailed 3-0 in the third set before winning six of the last seven games.

Among them, Australia-born Johanna Konta defeated Czech Denisa Allertova 6-2 6-2 to become the first British woman into the last 16 at Melbourne Park in almost 30 years. Her next match is against 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova, who had a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 9 Karolina Pliskova.

Murray was the first over the line, and thankfully the organisers got him off court without the need for an on-court interview, nor any of the usual press obligations, quite rightly.