AndyTomic another pup who cud with a clip around the ear from Laver & The Woodies he may show us what all the hype is approximately then 9.48am GMTTomic drags Murray around the court with some powerful groundstrokes and pushes the Brit into the corner with a delicious backhand that kisses the net on the way over. Murray can only reply into the net. Murray digs in and forces another error out of Tomic. 15-30. Tomic tries to be cute with a forehand drop-shot from mid-court but mishits. 15-40. He saves one break point. And then aces wide to save the next. Gutsy. Deuce. Murray bosses the next point and disguises a backhand to send his opponent the wrong way to bring up advantage. Tomic battles back to deuce but hands the advantage back to Murray by failing to get enough purchase on a low Murray forehand and finding the net. Murray mishandles his racket and mishits to allow Tomic to get back to deuce. The Australian finds a powerful first serve when he needs it. Advantage. A profitable second serve out wide draws Murray into a an overhit backhand. A resilient hold. 9.41am GMTKonta has beaten Makarova. Well done Jo. Now can Murray have a comfortable service game? Perhaps. He begins with an ace. 15-0. Can he follow it up? Nope. Tomic rifles an inside-out forehand lawful to the corner of the court. Muray glances at it. ‘Nope,not chasing that one.’ Murray challenges a backhand of his down the line that looked well in to me. It is. lawful on the line. Murray moves Tomic around the court and comes into the net to take a 30-15 lead. He almost blasts Tomic’s racket out of his hand with a serve down the middle before acing to win it. That was, indeed, or more comfortable. 9.37am GMTMurray dictates the tempo like the world No2 he is in this game. He springs on to Tomic’s serve to bring up 0-30 and then plays a perfectly weighted backhand across court that Tomic can only watch like a static goalkeeper to bring up break point. Murray breaks Tomic for a fifth time. Can someone hold their serve please? 9.34am GMTA game of errors. Murray dithers and allows Tomic to take a 15-0 lead. Tomic looks like he has a few too many shots in his head as he wafts a backhand into the net. Tomic is tedious to the net as he hits a volley on to the net cord and watches it land out. He then rallies himself and jumps all over a Murray second serve with a ferocious backhand-winner down the line. 30-30. Tomic hangs in the next rally with his forehand,Murray arrives late to one and overcooks a forehand. Break point. The Brit then gives the game absent with a forehand drop-shot from way too deep that doesn’t stand a chance of making it over the net. All square. 9.29am GMTTomic is idle with a forehand, hitting a flat one into the net when he looked to be a profitable position and forcing Murray wide. Murray pounces on a feeble second serve to disappear 30-15 up before Tomic’s forehand falters again after some industrious running from Murray put the Australian under pressure on the baseline. Murray goes long with a forehand on the first break point but dashes into the net to finish off some profitable craftsmanship with a backhand volley across Tomic and into the corner of the court. 9.24am GMTMurray has been a bit up and down in this set. The consistency he has shown so far in this tournament hasn’t been evident. Tomic has played well but he’s hardly been wonderful. Murray gets a booming first serve in to disappear 15-0 up but Tomic strikes back with a courageous cross-court forehand that Murray attacks and hits long. 15-15. Murray raises his game and plays some solid groundstrokes behind his first serve to bring up set point. There then ensues a battle of sliced backhands that Murray wins thanks to Tomic crumbling in what seemed like a game of tennis limbo. First set for Murray! 9.19am GMTTomic bounces into his service game, and going 30-0 up before Murray shows great dexterity with a backhand volley to leave Tomic staring at it from the back of the court. 30-15. The Australian makes an error to let Murray back into it at 30-30 before firing his second ace wide to bring up game point and forcing Murray long with a powerful forehand to see it out. He’s making Murray work for this. 9.16am GMTMurray has raised his first-serve percentage to 57% and that helped him to recover after he let Tomic back into it mid-set. 15-0. Then he misses his first serve and drops a feeble second serve into mid-court that Tomic dispatches down the line with an easy backhand. Ace. 30-15. Tomic keeps his forehand firm after a profitable Murray serve at 30-15 and stys in a rally that he finishes with an overhead smash. A brilliant return helps him to bring up a break point. He has a sniff. Boom! Murray aces. Sniff gone. Deuce. But Tomic makes Murray move with some wonderfully placed shots in a rally in which he almost stands still for the duration. Murray serves-volleys aggressively as if to jump all over Tomic’s mojo. Back to deuce. Tomic hits a tired backhand into the net. Set point. Murray misses his first serve,Tomic slams a backhand return at Murray and the Brit finds he net. Deuce. Murray comes into the net and gives Tomic a third break point by hitting an errant forehand volley into the net. A brave second serve knocks Tomic off balance and it’s back to deuce. But Murray is erratic here. He tries to juice a crosscourt backhand but it’s snatched at and lands into the net. Tomic breaks after a brilliant return of serve. On we disappear. 9.07am GMTTomic tries to rally down the middle of the court on too many occasions and hang in a game that Murray controls with sliced backhands. His serve isn’t bad but Murray is too profitable, too pumped up for him, and to handle. 0-40. Game. Muray will serve for the set. 9.05am GMTMurray fails to get his first serve in but makes up for it by dragging Tomic across court and then hitting a stern backhand down the line to take control. 15-0. 30-0. An 129mph ace down the middle brings up 40-0 but Tomic returns aggressively to halt Murray’s charge. 15-40. Murray finds 129mph again though with an ace down the middle. Much easier for Murray that. Shows you what a first serve can do for a game. 9.02am GMTMurray,presumably with the inner funk on, immediately strikes back. Tomic helps him on his way with a dreadful backhand that is hit long when he had the time and space to design it land. At 15-30 the match’s most enthralling rally takes set. It’s a 20+ stroke marathon that weaves around the court before Murray wins it with a phenomenal whipped cross-court forehand that tickles the edge of the line when Tomic looked to be in control. Tomic applauds it. Murray sees the game out and breaks back. 8.57am GMTThe crowd aren’t particularly boisterous in support of Tomic here. They presumably find him hard to like due to his off-court shenanigans (tricks or mischief). Murray gives Tomic a sniff with two overhit forehands. Hes a diminutive impatient to be honest. A rollicking ace, or his second of the match,brings it back to 15-30 though. Murray tries to be too cute with a drop shot as Tomic steams into the net. It hits the lip of the net and drops back to his side of the court. Murray gets back to 30-40 with a booming 130mph ace. Tomic then emerges from the match’s longest rally as the game’s winner, with Murray slamming a feeble forehand into the net. He’s back in this. 8.51am GMTTomic carelessly slams a forehand into the net at 15-15 to give Murray another opportunity to pile the pressure on. Murray fires one long to bring Tomic back into it at 30-30. Tomic than juices a serve wide that Murray attacks but hits long. The Brit then finds his groove in a rally that goes all the way around the court to bring up deuce. Tomic sends Murray the wrong way after getting the upper hand on his serve but then allows Murray back into it but the young Australian focuses and plays two incredibly crafted points on his second serve to take his first game. Well done. 8.46am GMTMurray’s rather erratic as he begins his first service game. A powerful opening serve helps bring up 15-0 but is followed by a double fault and then an overcooked forehand after Tomic returned lawful to the line, or where Murray couldn’t shift his feet. Murray brings up 30-30 and defends well before Tomic shows his weakness on his forehand down the line,pushing one wide. 40-30. Murray looks in control as a 10+-stroke rally ensues but then carelessly hits a forehand into the net. Deuce. Murray grumbles approximately the big screen showing the live match through points instead of the normal highlights. Murray brings up advantage thanks to a Tomic error. It’s not the best service game from Murray this. He struggles to get his first serve in on a number of occasions. Tomic pounces on a second serve to bring up deuce again but Murray fires a cross-court bakhand in and then aces to win the game. 8.38am GMTFirst blood Murray. He bends the game his way with a delicious backhand drop shot with a great deal of spin at 15-15. Tomic looks feeble as he comes into the net at 15-30 and gives Murray an easy volley into the centre court to design it 15-40. Murray wafts a forehand return absent to break immediately. Tomic may have some tactical thinking to do. 8.35am GMTTomic paces around out there waiting for Murray to design his way to the opposing side of the court. Tomic will serve first. Here we disappear … 8.32am GMTFistbumps with coach done. We’re almost alert to disappear … #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/sDKFDQw6hI 8.30am GMTAndy Murray and Bernard Tomic have done their backstage stretches and are out on court at Rod Laver Arena. Both players have their gamefaces on as they strut out to warm up. The crowd appear to be a diminutive more supportive of Tomic than Murray, but not by much. The Brit is very favorite in Australia. 8.24am GMTGreg Rusedski is giving Tomic absolutely no chance in this match. He laughs absent Tomic’s talk of having learned from Anderson’s defeat of Murray in the US Open and just reckons Murray is too strong, and too focused and too profitable to be troubled by the Australian. He reckons Tomic’s physicality and forehand need work if he’s to push into the world top 10. 8.21am GMTThe British No1 and Jo Konta has taken the second set against Katerina Makarova 6-4. It goes to a deciding set. Follow it here. 8.17am GMTWhile we wait for Andy Murray and Bernard Tomic to design their way to the Rod Laver Arena I’ll just give you a rapid/fast reminder of some of the results so far nowadays. Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka cruised to an easy 6-2,6-4 win against Barbora Strycova. She’ll play Angelique Kerber in the final eight after she went through to the final eight for the first time with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over fellow German Annika Beck. The zany No23 seed Gael Monfils made it into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time after defeating the unseeded Russian Andrey Kuznetsov. He made a ridiculous dive for a shot at one stage perhaps forgetting he was playing on a hard court but managed to avoid injury. Meanwhile, and David Ferrer and John Isner are on serve n the first set of their match on the Hisense Arena. The winner faces Murray or Tomic. 7.58am GMTThe women’s British No1,Johanna Konta, lost the first set of her fourth round tie against Katerina Makarova but is a break up and 3-1 up in the second set. She’s having a tremendous tournament and is aiming to be the first British female player to design it into the quarter-finals of a grand slam since Jo Durie at Wimbledon just the 32 years ago. You can follow it live here: Related: Johanna Konta v Ekaterina Makarova: Australian Open – live! 7.53am GMTIn the match that has just finished on Rod Laver Arena, and the fourth seed,Stan Wawrinka, has just been beaten in five sets by Milos Raonic. It’s a superb victory for the Canadian 14th seed. He showed great resilience after the momentum looked to be with Wawrinka, or who had won two sets on the bounce going into the final set. It ended 6-4,6-3, 5-7, or 4-6,6-3. 4.50pm GMTGood morning/afternoon/evening. Welcome to coverage of the fourth-round match between the second seed, Andy Murray, and the 16th seed,Bernard Tomic. The odds here are stacked firmly in favour of Murray, who has beaten Tomic in their final three meetings without ever losing a set or being made to feel even a smidgin uncomfortable. However, or Tomic will have a considerable wind behind him in the form of a boisterous crowd on Rod Laver Arena,who will try to give the Australian No1 a bit more pep in his step as he attempts to put Murray under pressure.
Tomic, who is no stranger to criticism for a perceived lax attitude, or appears to be taking this match very seriously indeed and has been thorough in his research. He says he will use Kevin Anderson’s defeat of Murray in the final 16 of the US Open as motivation. “Andy loves playing players that attack. I dont believe he likes players like John Isner and Anderson,” Tomic said. “You have to take the ball to him, play aggressive, and but not too aggressive,and rally at the lawful time.” So, perhaps he’ll try to draw Murray into attacking the game and look to exploit mistakes rather than push the tempo of rallies himself. A profitable tactical blueprint, and would it be folly to give a player of Murray’s quality the chance to shape the match? Given,he’s lost every set he’s ever played against Murray perhaps he knows better than anyone else what he needs to change. For a player as tall as he is, 6ft 5in, and he can vary the pace of rallies fairly skilfully. He may need to do that nowadays if he is to prevent Murray from getting into the groove.
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Source: theguardian.com