Top seed Andy Murray eased into the last-16 of the French Open 7-6(8), 7-5, 6-0 on Saturday, over a flagging Juan Martin del Potro.
Murray did enough to keep his nose in front throughout, while the giant Argentine was unable to reprise the heroics that saw the pair produce such magic in last year’s Rio Olympics gold medal match.
While Murray won that affair too — and their only previous Grand Slam meeting — del Potro had triumphed in their most recent clash, so the Scot was alert to the dangers.
del Potro, whose career has been blighted by a recurring wrist injury, needed a good start against the World No. 1, but when he lost a tight first set tiebreak, the stage was set.
Losing that opener on a disputed line call cut del Potro deep. Murray jogged to his seat at the changeover, the Argentine stood at the net, bent at the waist, his head resting on the net cord. There he stayed until the umpire called time.
The pair traded blows in the second set with Murray creeping ahead. But a monumental effort by del Potro saw him break back for 5-5, only to instantly drop serve again as Murray yanked him around the court with tight angles, drop shots and lobs.
This time the Scot would make no mistake and crunched it out with his fourth ace of the match.
del Potro’s spirit was broken, and the vocal Paris crowd were quelled.
With some exquisite returning and acutely angled groundstrokes, Murray raced through the final set to set up a fourth-round clash with either American 21st seed John Isner or Russian Karen Khachanov
“I expected a very tough match. Whoever won that first set would have the momentum as it would have been very difficult to come back in these heavy, slow conditions,” said Murray.
“He was playing much better than me in the first set. He had chances in the first set, he double-faulted on set point.”
Smooth progress
Former US Open champion Marin Cilic continued his smooth progress, seeing off Feliciano Lopez, who was limited by a neck injury, 6-1, 6-3, 6-3.
Croatian seventh seed Cilic will next meet South Africa’s Kevin Anderson who matched his best run at Roland Garros with a five-set win over Britain’s Kyle Edmund.
Anderson twice recovered from a set down to advance 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 in just under four hours in a duel between two players born in Johannesburg.
In the women’s event, France has three women in the last 16 for the first time in 23 years. However, that success is overshadowed by a bitter feud between compatriots Alize Cornet and Caroline Garcia who will clash for a place in the quarterfinals.
Cornet reached the last 16 for just the second time with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska who lost all her seven service games.
Garcia, seeded 28, made the fourth round of a Slam for the first time with a 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 win over Taiwan’s World No. 109 Hsieh Su-Wei.
Those wins guaranteed the home nation will have at least one quarterfinalist in Paris for the first time since Marion Bartoli in 2011.
