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By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, July 10, 2017

The Wimbledon draw presented the prospect of a wild ride for Andy Murray.

Playing as if powered by an internal GPS, the reigning champion continues to master every turn of the course.

Watch: Nadal Bangs Head in Pre-Match Jump

Down a break in the opening set, Murray managed a tight set and enigmatic opponent with control driving into his 10th consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal with a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 conquest of Benoit Paire.

Since falling to Stan Wawrinka in the 2010 US Open third round, Murray has advanced to the quarterfinals or better in 24 of his last 26 Grand Slam appearances.




The world No. 1 will face Sam Querrey for a semifinal spot. 

The 24th-seeded Querrey pumped 31 aces and only one double fault edging Kevin Anderson, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (11), 6-3, in three hours, six minutes. The victory vaults Querrey, who toppled then No. 1 Novak Djokovic last year, into his second straight Wimbledon quarterfinal. 

Consistency and clarity on big points were key components to today’s victory.

It was Murray’s second straight match against a dangerous shot-maker capable of dazzling strikes and debilitating self-sabotage.

In round three, theatrical Italian Fabio Fognini nearly pushed the top-seeded Scot to five sets before Murray rallied from 2-5 down in the fourth set for a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 triumph.

Twice down a break in the opening set, Murray worked over Paire’s weaker forehand wing to level.

"Mst players generate more power and try to hit their winners off the forehand side just because it's a little bit easier," Murray said. "You tend to have a little bit more power on that side.

"But he doesn't. He hits the ball bigger off his backhand side. He has great timing on that shot, great feel. Most guys move around their backhand to hit forehands. He moves the other way. So it's quite rare to see that. It takes a bit of time to adjust to that. So yeah, had to play maybe slightly differently than maybe I would against some other guys."

Murray can degenerate from ornery to outright self-mockery when things go wrong. Few have mastered the art of scathing self-implosion to the degree of Paire, who beats up on himself and his racquet almost as vigorously as he belts his exquisite two-handed backhand.

While Paire tested Murray in rallies, the top seed mastered the distracted Frenchman in the mental game.

Murray played score and situation with more clarity and care, defended vigorously in draining 43 errors from Paire, attacked effectively at times—winning 17 of 25 net points—and served sharply when facing break-point deficits.

Paire scrambled out of a love-30 hole boldly using the drop shot to force the tie break.

All the good work Paire did to force the tie break dissipated in a rapid implosion.

The lanky Frenchman double faulted to gift Murray the mini-break then dropped his racquet in disgust falling behind love-3. Paire’s flaky forehand fell apart in the breaker with three forehand errors in the last five points as Murray rolled to a 6-love lead taking a lopsided tie break.

A primary problem for Paire is he plays far too many loose points and gives away too many forehand errors on rally balls.

Paire launched a forehand long dropping serve at love to start the second set. At that point, it seemed Paire might just go away.

Instead, he dug in and carved out a break to get back on serve at 3-all.

The maddening aspect of Paire is he can lose his way without warning and litter errors across the grass in bunches. Falling into a love-40 hole in the ninth game, Paire was in prime position for a backhand volley but badly bungled the shot wide donating the break at love as Murray served for the set at 5-4.

As Murray slipped in the brown patch of dirt behind the baseline, Paire whipped a forehand winner down the line for double break point.

Trying to squeeze a forehand down the line behind the champion, Paire missed the mark on his first break point. Murray attacked behind a bold serve thumping a smash to save the second break point. Murray fended off a third break point with a smash into the crowd.

A fourth break point disappeared when a back-pedaling Paire stopped play and challenged a Murray drive.

Hawk-Eye showed the ball landed squarely on the baseline. Murray battled through a four break-point hold sealing a two-set lead after one hour 40 minutes on his opponent’s 34th unforced error—30 more than the world No. 1. 

Speculation surrounding the state of Murray's hip issue swirled around the Scot before the tournament began. Paire said Murray seems to be moving fine and discounted the hip issue as a factor in his title defense. 

"I think he has no problem," Paire said. "Look at him. Look at him. The problem is not between the points. The match is during the point. During the point, you didn't see any problem.

"Between the points, yeah, we can do what we want, but during the point he can run like a rabbit. For him, yeah, is every time like this. So is never easy to know if he's injured, if not. If you see when he's playing like this, he has no problem if he's 100 percent.

"I played him last year in Monte-Carlo, and it was the same guy against me today. Mostly I think he can win Wimbledon. He has not a lot of confidence, for sure, but he can. He's No. 1. Yeah, for him, I'm sure he win the tournament."

Confronting break-point pressure with calm in the third set, Murray curled a crosscourt forehand into the corner to deny break point for 4-all. By then, he’d fended off eight of the 11 break points he encountered.

Lost opportunity pained Paire in the following game when he slapped a forehand into the middle of the net, Murray had the break and would serve for the quarterfinals.

Paire spun a forehand long to end it after two hours, 21 minutes sending Murray into his 10th consecutive Wimbledon quarterfinal.

Continuing his quest to become the first Briton to successfully retain a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry won his third consecutive Wimbledon in 1936, Murray should be confident for an eighth semifinal in the last nine years. Murray has won seven of eight meetings with Querrey forcing the American to try to create something special from his backhand wing. 

"Sam obviously likes the conditions here," Murray said. "He played really well last year. He's had some good wins here, some tight matches as well. He'll be confident going in.

"Obviously a big serve. Goes for his shots. Very aggressive player. So I'll need to, you know, like today, I maybe played one or two service games in the first set that weren't the best. Against him, you can't really afford that. He's not an easy guy to break. When he's ahead, he can serve well. He's a good frontrunner. I'll need to make sure I'm serving well and, you know, not letting him dictate too much.

"When he's standing up on the baseline, hitting forehands, dictating, he's a very dangerous player."


 

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