Andy Murray v Juan Ignacio Chela - as it happened

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 Chela 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. 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. 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. 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 1-2 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 1-3 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 1-4 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 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 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 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 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 5-5 Chela*: Murray has another curates egg of a game: good in spots. At one point he fist-pumps after giving Chela the runaround, then hits a poor ground-stroke that leaves him chewing on the end of his own racket in frustration. He earns himself a break point with a beauty of a backhand down the tramlines, but Chela saves courtesy of another unforced Murray error. Chela earns his third set point when Murray sends a backhand into the crowd, but squanders it with his first double-fault. After being lobbed by Murray, he comes within this much of hitting the shot of the tournament with a shot through his own legs: advantage Murray. The Scot breaks back to restore parity with a marvellous whipped forehand from the right that leaves Chela stranded in no-man's land. "I was at a John Fogerty concert in Buenos Aires, the week before, and David Nalbandian was sat in front of me," writes Senor Brains. "He was surprisingly short. Stood up, I mean. Nalbandian is a tennis player, in case you were wondering." I know exactly who David Nalbandian is, Senor. I'm more intrigued to know who John Fogerty is. First set: *Murray 6-5 Chela Chela should have won this set by now, but has handed Murray two reprieves his erratic first set play scarcely deserves. The Argentinian motors into a 0-30 lead, with Murray's footwork looking all over the place; he's just not getting behind the ball on occasion. He certainly seems to be being impaired by his injury, as there was a definite grimace when he lost the second point. It goes to 15-40 when Murray's attempted return of an angled Chela volley from the net goes long, but he clips the line in the next rally to win a point back. Chela inspects the area where the ball landed, shrugs his shoulders and erases the mark with his toe. Murray clips the line again to win the next rally: deuce. Another killer backhand down the tramlines gives him advantage and a perfunctory serve and volley puts him in the lead for the first time. First set: Murray 6-6 Chela*: At the start of this game, Chela had squandered three set points and no end of break points - he should definitely be a set up, but Murray's propensit to win all the big points has kept him in the set. He wins two consecutive beauties in this game to go 30-15 up, one a volley, the other a backhand, but Chela makes it 30-30 with another one of those beautifully dinked drop shots from distance of which he appears so fond. An unforced error from Murray makes it 40-30 to Chela, who wins the game when Murray horribly mishits a second serve return. Tie-break time. On a side topic, the number of people expressing disgust and astonishment that I didn't know John Fogerty was in Creedence Clearwater Revival currently stands at seven. First set tie-break: The first three points go against serve, with Murray going first, then clipping the line twice in succession to go 2-1 up. He sends a backhand fizzing down the line to make it 3-1, then with both players at the net having exchanged drop shots, passes Chela down the right to go 4-1 up. He wins the next to make it 5-1, Chela pulls one back, only to send a rogue forehand ridiculously long, giving Murray four set points on his own serve. He wins it at the first time of asking; Chela will be furious with himself because he really bottled that one. First set: Murray 7-6 Chela Second set: Murray 1-0 Chela* (7-6) Murray breaks, putting more hurt on a clearly dispirited Chela. I won't lie - I wasn't paying attention, because I was watching some Creedance Clearwater Revival on YouTube after Peter Hullah mailed an example of some of Peter Fogerty's work . He too is appalled that I've never heard of the guy. Sorry, but dodgy 70s American swamp rock isn't really my cup of tea. *Game-by-game reporter dons tin hat and waits for deluge of angry emails from CCR fans ... and tennis fans* Second set: *Murray 2-0 Chela (7-6) When it looked as if Murray might be about to canter off into the distance, Chela motors into an unlikely 0-40 lead. Murray pulls two points back - the second after an outstanding effort by both players which Murray wins with a marvellous backhand after being lobbed. He hammers down his fourth ace of the match to make it deuce, making it another trio of big points won in quick succession. Murray takes the advantage with a short, backhand volley after another exchange of dainty drop shots around the net,then closes out the game to win from 0-40 and advantage down. Chela is putting on an exhibition of choking here. Meanwhile back at the swamp rock festival: "It's John Fog a rty, get it right!" harrumphs David Sutherland. Second set: Murray 2-1 Chela* (7-6) He may be choking here this afternoon, but Chela does love a dinked drop shot. It's his party piece or calling card, and when he gets one right he can make his opponent look very silly indeed. He bamboozles Murray again in this game, but the Scot manages to get another break point at 30-40. Chela avoids going a double-break down, making it deuce, but nets a fairly straightforward volley to hand Murray the advantage. A broken string forces Murray over to his chair to get a new racquet and he squanders his latest break point by slamming a top spin drive into the net-cord after being lured to the net by another Chela drop shot. Chela concedes advantage to Murray again, rescues it back and then wins advantage for himself when the ball takes a kick off the clay and whizzes past a bewildered Murray, who goes close to whacking himself in the headwith his own racquet. Chela wins the next game to hold serve. Second set: *Murray 3-1 Chela (7-6) Murray wins his service game to love, while I wrassle with this metaphorical 'gator from Oliver Pattenden. "Didn't you used to write for a music paper?" he asks. "I'm not saying Fogarty (John, not Peter, by the way) is any good (he isn't), but CCR are a pretty famous band from an era that is, rightly or wrongly, viewed as one which defined the message and meaning of rock music. Ignoring their significance to the whole summer of love 'revolution' would be akin to overlooking the contribution of Menswear to BritPop." Menswear, ha! I'm not saying I've never heard of CCR, because I have. I just wasn't familiar enough with them to know the names of anyone in their line-up. And I mainly wrote about non-music-related items for the music, comedy, entertainment and politics magazine in question. Second set: Murray 4-1 Chela* (7-6) Murray looks across at his people and has another grumble, this time he appears to be unimpressed with the amount of tension in his tennis racquet. If it's as low as the amount of tension in the match he's playing, I can understand his beef. Despite his untaut strings, he breaks Chela again. "I was just thinking it would be a damn sight better if John Fogarty could replace Cliff Richard as the Wimbledon singing stalwart," writes Adam Jackson. "He should probably be called in to sing Who'll Stop The Rain?. That is the best tennis/Creedence title related pun I could come up with i'm afraid." Good effort, Adam, although it's beginning to occur to me that this must be one of very few Guardian Sport rolling reports in history where the accompanying sideline riff is considerably less entertaining than the actual sport being played. Second set: *Murray 4-2 Chela (7-6) At 30-30, Murray drops a backhand into the base of the net, giving Chela a much-needed break point. Murray then gifts him the game with a rare double fault. "Dodgy? CCR are dodgy swamp rock? You have no soul. None. Zilch!" declares Peter Hullah, who may well have a point. He goes on to say "I don't know where David Sutherland and Oliver Pattenden get Fog a rty from, but it is definitely Fog e rty with an ' e '." Second set: Murray 5-2 Chela* (7-6) From quinnze all (or partout, if you want to be pedantic and French about it) , to trente partout to deuce, Murray gains the advantage, then wins the jeu when Chela sends a forehand from deep long. Cue: a curly-haired Scotsman fist-pumping at the base-line. John Fogerty appears on one of my children's Wiggles DVDs along with the cursed Aussie entertainers," writes Craig Coyle. "His appearance ranks well below those by Rolf Harris, Kylie and one of the Finn brothers." Second set: *Murray 5-3 Chela (7-6) With no Hawk Eye at Roland Garros, the umpire is occasionally called from his chair to inspect the mark where the ball landed in the caswe of disputed line-calls. This invariably involves him standing over a series of scuff-marks in and around the inside tram line, studying the ground at his feet and then turning to whichever line judge made the call, giving them an encouraging thumbs-up and then returning to his chair. It happens again in this game, which is at deuce by the time I've finished writing that uninteresting paragraph. Chela goes on to break. "I also saw U2 play in Buenos Aires too, in La Plata in fact," writes Senor Brains. "They are a popular modern four piece combo band, or group. Have you heard of them?" U2? Modern? Ha-ha! Good one. I am proud to say I have yet to contribute as much as a penny of my own money to the coffers of those musical magpies, although I did see them emerge Spinal Tap-style from a giant citrus fruit in Dublin once while in Lansdowne Road (or was it Croke Park?) on a freebie. Second set: Murray 5-4 Chela* (7-6) Murray shouts "come on!" at the top of his voice after giving himself a set point: 30-40. With half the court at his mercy in the wake of another Chela drop-shot, he smacks the ball into the net cord. Deuce. Showing a fighting spirit that was conspicuous by its absence in the first set, Chela takes advantage with a smash into the corner, then wins the game with his next serve. Murray will have to serve for the set. On the subject of Cliff Richard, Ben Goodband writes: "Cliff claims to be such a huge tennis fan but during the Murray match on Sunday I saw him in Whole Foods in Manhattan asking an employee where he could find the Hummus. I was going to pull him up on his typical "only Wimbledon matters" mentality but he disappeared, looking for pretzel chips I assume." Second set: *Murray 5-5 Chela (7-6): An unforced error from Murray, followed by a splendid backhand down the left tramline gives Chela the early advantage: 0-30. Murray pulls a point back when Chela has to stretch and can only find the net with his next backhand. It goes to 30-30, then Chela does excellently to force the mistake from Murray to earn himself a break point, which he wins when Murray sends a straightforward passing shot long. This is a stirring fightback from the Argentinian and he's got the crowd fully behind him. Well, not quite fully - Andy Murray's mum, Judy, is looking particularly stony-faced so it's difficult to know who she wants to win. "Not to cast aspersions on John Fogerty's elocution, but it wasn't until I heard Bonnie Tyler sing Have You Ever Seen The Rain that I finally understood what he was prattling on about all these years," writes Ted Lee. "It's not a good sign when you need Bonnie to clear things up for you." Bonnie Tyler, you say? Who's sh ... don't worry, I'm just kidding. Didn't she release an album about Manchester City fans, entitled Bitterblue? Second set: Murray 6-5 Chela* (7-6) Chela undoes all his hard work by letting Murray break him again. The Scot will serve for the set. "CCR is the Dude´s favourite band so their status as incontravertably one of the greatest rock bands of all time is secured," writes Tony Feld. "Their version of I Heard it Through the Grape Vine is up their with Hendrix´s All Along the Watchtower. Then we have classics like Bad Moon Risin, I Put a Spell On You, Ramble Tamble and many more. Fogerty also wrote Rockin´All Over the World. But for true rock brilliance, check out Fortunate Son and Run Through the Jungle. Classics beyond dispute. It´s jaw-dropping that CCR´s brilliance is being challenged in this casual manner." Congratulations Tony on mounting such a stirring but ultimately futile defence of these purveyors of dodgy swamp rock. Second set: Murray 7-5 Chela* (7-6) The players exchange points to go 15-15. Two booming serves from Murray leave him 40-15 up with a brace of set points. He serves long, then surrenders the first with a loose forehand into the net: 40-30. Annoyed with himself, Murray promptly wraps up the second set with a fizzing ace. On BBC Interactive, Sue Barker interjects between games to tell anyone who was tuning in to see Cash In The Celebrity Attic that, sorry, it'll be on at a later date because they're staying with this game. Since when do people moronic enough to watch such a risible and low-rent waste of time deserve apologies or explanations? Seriously? Third set: *Murray 1-0 Chela (7-6,7-5) Murray breaks in the opening game, winning to love. I didn't see a stroke of it, as I was on what is known in the tennis trade as a quick comfort break. Apologies. Third set: *Murray 2-0 Chela (7-6,7-5) Shot of the match: Murray takes the pace of a bullet forehand to stun the ball to a standstill mere inches into the far side of the court on Chela's side of the court. At deuce, Chela concedes the advantage, courtesy of an unlucky deflection off the net-cord. Murray serves out. "Nevermind John Fogerty, check out his brother Tom, who was also in CCR," writes Simon McCathie. This little number somehow slipped onto the BBC Schools daytime schedule in the late 70s/early 80s. Remember that clock which magically disappeared as the next exciting installment of Seeing and Doing was about to start? This is the soundtrack to those days when anything seemed possible." Third set: Murray 2-0 Chela* (7-6,7-5) At 15-30 down and looking in all sorts of bother, Chela wrongfoots Murray and nicks the line to get hismelf back in the game. He goes 40-30 up, only to see another of his drop shots lobbed back over his head with interest: deuce. Chela wins the next two points to taske the game. Returning to slump into their chairs for a break, both players look completely knackered. "Who could possibly dislike this ?" asks Tom Jenkins. "Creedence have somehow gotten remembered as one-trick hippy hicks, but compare them to, say, The Band, who've become deified by journos over the years, largely owing to their position as Dylan's backing band: Creedence were cooler, wrote better songs and were the better musicians. But then what do I know? I've just received an email from Abebooks entitled MENTAL ILLNESS IN FICTION. Someone's telling me something." The one thing I will say about CCR is that quite a few of them bear a striking resemblance to Lukey Moore from the Football Ramble. Third set: *Murray 3-1 Chela (7-6,7-5) 15-0. 30-0. Umpire out of chair to check ball-mark. 40-0. Jeu Murray. "I'm ashamed to say that recently, and voluntarily watched an episode of Celebrity Cash in the Attic," writes Ewan Benson. "It 'starred' Eddie Large, and the only entertainment to be derived was mild amusement at the miserable failure of his auction items. So not only does the Beeb not owe anyone an apology, I would like to apologise to all my friends and family for my lapse in judgement. I plan to enter rehab and watch back-to-back series of Spiral and The Killing." Third set: Murray 3-2 Chela* (7-6, 7-5) The fact of the matter is that Chela isn't as good as Murray, but while he bottled a first set he should have won easily, he's at least hanging in there ad putting up a decent fight. Despite being sent scurrying hither and yon across the court by his superior opponent, he manages to hold serve and trudges back to his chair, a towel over his shoulder and his face pouring with sweat. "Hello there, thought you might be needing these," writes Christopher Gowans. "Bad Moon Re-String, Fortu-Net Son, Zvonareva Seen The Rain? And of course: Proud Murray." That seeping sound you can heear is my last remaining bit of will to live forming a very small puddle around my feet. Third set: *Murray 4-2 Chela (7-6, 7-5) Whack! Ugghhh! Whack! Ugghhh! Thwock! Ugghhh! Whack! Ugghhh! Jeu Murray. "I notice The Fiver has just dropped into my inbox, written by none other than yourself," writes Stuart Henderson, who I suspect is about to ask me to ruin The Magic. "I'd always assumed it was hastily written at 4.55pm and then punted out the door without so much as a cursory glance of editorial oversight. But since you've been doing the tennis-ball live text for the last three hours, I can only assume that I've been wrong all this time and that you actually plan some of the Fiver in advance. I'm more than a little disappointed ... or can you reassure me that you've actually been half-assing both the Fiver and the live text all afternoon?" Third set: Murray 5-2 Chela* (7-6, 7-5) The last two games have passed in a blur (translation: I've been catching up on what's been going on at Fifa HQ in Paul Doyle's splendid rolling report . You'll all be delighted to hear that Sepp Blatter has been elected for president of the world football governing body for yet another term. What a huge shock that is. Murray secures himself a break point, then gets his second break of the set. I can't see Senor Chela coming back from that knockout blow. Third set: *Murray 5-2 Chela (7-6, 7-5) Murray serves for the match, knowing that if he holds his serve he'll meet Rafael Nadal in the semi-final. Actually, he may not know that at all yet, but he will soon. After conceding the opening point to Chela, he restores parity with an unstoppable scorching forehand down the baseline. The scoreboard ticks over to 30-30, at which point Murray throws Chela a lifline, sending a forehand from the basline inches wide. Chela fails to capitalise: 40-40. Murray wins advantage to earn his first match point. He books his passage to the semi-final with a magnificent drop shot from the base line that appears to wipe its feet on its way over the net-cord before bouncing millimetres inside Chela's half of the court. Game, set and match, Andy Murray. Celebrity Cash in the Attic devotee Ewan Benson is back with another confession: "Now I have come clean with my Celebrity Cash in the Attic confession, I feel compelled to admit that my (American) wife's father was actually a roadie for CCR back in the day," he says. "Guilt by association, I know, but it still feels good to come clean. No more dirt from me today, I promise."