Andy Murray v Juan Ignacio Chela – live!

• Refresh this page for all the latest action • Ping your emails to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Check the French Open website • Follow Barry on Twitter First set: *Murray 4-5 Chela: After playing the losing shot of that last game, Murray looked down at his injured ankle, then looked at his “people” in the crowd, mutttered something and shrugged his shoulders. He doesn’t look to happy. He gives Chela tow set points, the first of which he wastes by sending a backhand from deep narrowly wide with half the court gaping. Murray saves the second, sprinting forward and sliding to hit an unlikely winner after Chela had tried to bamboozle him with a sweet drop shot. Murray then wins advantage before squandering it with another poor shot into the net. He wins the next two points to save a service game he looked certain to lose a couple of minutes ago. “Murray injured?” writes Gary Naylor. “Hmm … some players have excuses when they lose and some have reasons. Murray is probably one who has reasons, more often than not. The record book doesn’t differentiate between excuses and reasons though does it?” No, that would be the dictionary, I suppose. First set: Murray 3-5 Chela*: Chela goes 40-0, the second winner coming when a Murray return pitches up short, allowing the Argentinian to send the ball fizzing past the Scot into the corner. The pair exchange winners, making the score 40-15, then trade baseline shots. Chela drops one in the net to make it 40-30, but wins the next long, long baseline battle when Murray sends a loose shot into the net. He’s playing a lot of bad shots from the right-hand side of the court, which is obviously where Chela is trying to keep him penned. First set: *Murray 3-4 Chela: Murray returns to his seat under the umbrella having finally held his serve without first at the third time of asking. “When I was watching him play the other day, Murray appeared to be drinking ouzo (or possibly pastis, given he’s in France),” writes Louise Wright. “I reckon if you’re playing tennis on a dodgy ankle ouzo’ll numb the pain at least as effectively as pills. Is he still on that stuff or has he gone with orangey drink for this one?” First set: Murray 2-4 Chela* The ball travels back and forth across the net a few times and Murray shows guts and concentration to secure his first break and get back in the set. It’s the first game in the match in which he’s played well. First set: *Murray 1-4 Chela: Murray goes 15-40 down on his own serve, before pulling back two points to make it all square on deuce. He gives advantage to Chela with a wayward forehand down his right-hand side, and the Argentinian wins the game with a sublime passing shot with Murray standing helpless at the net. First set: Murray 1-3 Chela*: Chela is playing some solid tennis here. He goes 30-0 up, allows Murray to pull a point back to make it 30-15, but dodges a bullet when Murray hits another sloppy shot, slicing the ball wide and showing his first signs of frustration by administering a dose of corporal punishment to his own racket. Chela wins the next point to go 3-1 up. First set: *Murray 1-2 Chela The length of some of the rallies in these early games would suggest I might be here for a very long time. Despite his injured left ankle, Murray’s movement doesn’t seem particularly impaired and he’s moving about quite freely. On 30-30 in his second service game, he double-faults to give Chela his first break point, which he then saves, before sending a backhand from very deep to concede another break-point. Chela takes advantage of another sloppy Murray drop-shot to send the ball skimming down the line to give his opponent no chance. First set: Murray 1-1 Chela*: Chela holds his serve comfortably to level proceedings in a game I didn’t really see because I was trying to drum up a bit of support for this rolling report on Twitter. The Argentinian won to 15, charging to the net on the final point to smash a woeful attempted drop-shot by Murray. First set: *Murray 1-0 Chela: The BBC cut to the match which is already in progress. Andy Murray won the toss and elected to serve and is 40-30 up. He hits a forehand into the net to allow Chela even things up at deuce, but then wins the next two points to hold his first service game. Not long now: And already we have an email pointing out my shortcomings as a tennis commentator: “”Oopsie,” writes Lindsay Waero. “Andy didn’t play a gruelling five-setter yesterday. He played one set.” Gah! It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these – be gentle. Preamble: With an injured ankle that’s forced him on to a diet of pain-killing and anti-inflammatory pills so large we’re likely to hear him rattling as he walks on to court, No4 seed Andy Murray takes on unseeded Argentinian Juan Ignacio Cela in the quarter-final of the French Open this afternoon. Murray sustained his injury in his fourth round victory over Michael Berrer from Germany and has since hobbled his way to a heroic cvictory against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, in which he came from two sets down to secure his quarter-final berth. His opponent today is an experienced journeyman has made the last eight in French Open for just the second time and has never progressed further than the last eight in one of the sport’s majors. His win-loss ratio this year is a fairly ordinary 17-12, but this is his best showing in a grand slam event since 2004, when he made the last eight of the US Open. Murray and Chela have met seven times previously, with the Scot having prevailed six times. But Chela is bound to fancy his chances of this afternoon, considering his opponent played a gruelling five-setter yesterday on an dodgy ankle. Interestingly, the bookies have priced up Chela at 5-1 to win this match, which may well be worth a speculative punt. French Open Tennis Andy Murray Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 1, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.