World No. 1 Andy Murray recorded the 650th match win of his career on Monday when he booked his spot in the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the seventh time.
Murray served with great fluency to end the run of 21-year-old #NextGenATP Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and four minutes. It was his 20th match win of the season.
"I think today was probably the best I have played overall," said Murray. "It was difficult conditions. It was pretty windy out there and wasn't easy. Each match I feel like I played better. I have hit the ball cleaner and started to see the right shots at the right moments. I've come a long way the past 10 days or so."
Murray, the 15th player in ATP World Tour history to reach the 650 victories (or more) milestone, will next play eighth-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori, who beat Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Murray leads Nishikori 8-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head and won their lone clay-court clash at the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open.
Top seed @andy_murray fended off rising star Khachanov (and a barrage of blistering groundstrokes) to reach the QFs for 7th time.
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2017
#RG17 pic.twitter.com/m66tTAoZsT
Last year’s finalist didn’t give Khachanov any rhythm, and while the Russian broke serve two times – at 2-3 in the second set and 3-4 in the third set – Murray bounced back immediately, finishing the encounter with 29 winners, and just 12 unforced errors.
Superbe point de @Andy_Murray face à @karenkhachanov #RG17 pic.twitter.com/ykvcw4L0Z1
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2017
Khachanov was looking to become the first player to reach the quarter-finals on his clay-court Grand Slam championship debut since Rafael Nadal in 2005.
“It’s never fun to lose a match,” said Khachanov. “But I take great experience from this match and playing on the Centre Court. All the credit to Andy… [I have learned] that I have to stay focused all the time.”