Andy Murray was ready to quit Australian Open after father-in-law health scare

Canadian Milos Raonic has advanced to the quarter-finals at the Australian Open after defeating Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in five sets on Monday.

Milos Raonic takes on Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Australian Open as he looks to make his way into the semi-finals to take on the victor between number two seed Andy Murray and David Ferrer.

Despite Raonic looking to serve and volley to shorten points and, in turn, nullify the 2014 Australian Open champion’s exceptional shot-making, the fourth-round match still lasted three hours and 44 minutes.

But that victory was marred by the worrying collapse of Murray’s father-in-law Nigel Sears, who had been watching Ana Ivanovic, the woman he coaches, in action on an adjacent court.

Murray said he would have pulled out of the tournament if the news was bad about Sears, but the 58-year-old made a quick recovery and was cleared to leave hospital the next day. The family orientated Scot was beyond anxious and even stated that he would fly home anytime soon if his wife went into labor as she is nearing her due date.

“It was just a tough, emotional few days at a hard time”, Murray told reporters, adding that he considered withdrawing from the tournament. Asked to comment on what the craziest thing he’d ever seen Monfils do on court, Raonic said, smiling: “Probably the thing he does next”. “I don’t think there was a time in the match where we were playing our best at the same time”.

Monfils risked injury as he hurtled through to his first Australian Open quarterfinals with a four-set win over Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.

“A few minutes later, he was pumping his fists after an easy put away at the net for a 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 win – his first against Wawrinka in five attempts”. “Hopefully, it gets better the next few days”, he said. Like some soccer player, I don’t know how to say it in English, but they jump and they do it. Murray was in the driver’s seat of that match from start to finish.

On the women’s side, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka returned to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Barbaro Strycova 6-2, 6-4.

Raonic, who lost to the fourth-seeded Wawrinka in their four previous meetings, improved to 18-5 in Melbourne and 47-19 at Grand Slams.

Each player held serve through the first 10 games of the third set, until Wawrinka came through with a break for a 6-5 lead, and closed it out on serve to force a fourth set. “I’ll get some good rest in and I think I will be fine now”.

Former world number one Azarenka proved too strong for Czech Barbora Strycova on Rod Laver Arena, storming through 6-2, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Kerber, who beat fellow German Annika Beck 6-4, 6-0.

After the match during her on-court interview, Azarenka was more concerned with the outcome of another sports contest: the Denver Broncos vs. New England Patriots AFC championship game.