Andy Murray reached the last 16 at Wimbledon today with a win over Andreas Seppi, the final score reading 6-2 6-2 1-6 6-1 in the Brit's favour.
Following the men's world number two, Roger Federer, and the women's world number two, Petra Kvitova, on Centre Court today was one of the favourites for the title this year, Britain's own Andy Murray.
Murray has breezed through the first two rounds, beating Mikhail Kukushkin and Robin Haase both in straight sets. However, today presented a different challenge as he faced 25th seed Andreas Seppi. Seppi has already overcome a Brit this week in wildcard Brydan Klein, and saw off the challenge of promising 18-year-old Borna Coric in the previous round too, so would be no walkover today having dealt with both hostile crowds and clear talent already.
However, the support for Murray would be higher than that for Klein given the bigger venue and crowd, whilst his ability is far greater than the raw talent possessed by Coric, so he was going to be Seppi's biggest challenge yet too.
Murray races ahead
An early break gave Muray a very early lead this evening, one which was consolidated by some extremely strong service games. A sensational break to love was then displayed midway through the set, giving him a 5-2 lead and allowing him to serve for the match - which he did convincingly to go ahead after just 30 minutes.
Whilst Seppi has not played brilliantly up to this point, the score was more about how good Murray had been, not how poor his opponent had played.
Everything that the Italian was trying, Murray was reaching. Seppi was bringing variety into his game, but it lacked conviction for the most part, with shots played half-heartedly and not well enough to be effective against the world number three.
This theme continued into the second set, with the Brit breaking in the first game and then following up with a solid service game to go 2-0 up.
He was dishing out aces for fun and the momentum he was gathering from such a fast and fantastic start was also aided by the vocal crowd supporting him on Centre Court.
Seppi's serve, on the other hand, was poor and easy for Murray to return, which had allowed him to break three times already in the match.
A good game, including two aces, for Seppi followed Murray's establishment of a 2-0 lead, but even when he was producing good serves, he was only just edging out his opponent by a point or two to win the games.
The one way traffic continued as Murray broke again at 4-2, serving for a two set lead. Seppi's closing minutes of the set had been extremely poor and it was going to take a miracle for him to even get a set back in this match, never mind turn it around completely.
Surprisingly, the Italian lifting his performance massively in this game though, a delicious drop shot and en even more impressive shot down the line, combined with two errors from Murray, giving him a break back point.
This was saved with a fierce ace by the Brit, but his first double fault of the match then gave Seppi another break point as he appeared to have lost his focus, perhaps due to the fact that he had breezed through so easily up to now.
The momentary blip was eventually that and nothing more though, as Murray recovered to finish the set off with another ace, leading by two sets with an hour and four minutes gone.
Strategic medical time out or serious injury? Seppi storms back
Having taken an early lead in both sets so far, Murray would be keen to do exactly the same in set number three to ultimately seal the win.
However, to give the Italian credit, Seppi came out and played two solid service games early on before an injury to his knee or shin was seen to during a medical time out on court, though this could have been a strategic decision to slow things down in a match that was quickly running away from him.
Having kept Murray waiting during these few minutes of attention, Seppi came out strongly and immediately saw three break points having perhaps disrupted his opponent's concentration slightly.
The Brit saved the first two, but a very sloppy double fault followed to give Seppi the lead in set three, whilst his opponent then extended his advantage to 4-1 with a good hold of serve, although Murray made his fair share of errors in the game to help him out.
The latter occurred in Murray's following game too, as Seppi against saw three break points in an unprecedented turn of events. Despite saving the first two again, the third seed surrendered his serve and allowed his opponent to serve for the third set at 5-1.
Murray really switched back on at this crucial moment, a marvellous point that ended with a lovely volley giving him a break point, albeit one saved by Seppi on a good first serve.
The Italian saw three set points after this, and despite Murray being determined not to let the set go, continuing to deny Seppi the chance to halve his lead, he would eventually take his third chance and get a set on the board at 6-1.
The trainer's magical touch returns
Murray was getting irritated with himself now, and when Seppi broke in the first game of the fourth set, the Brit called the trainer himself on court for a shoulder problem that he had hinted at earlier in the match.
Whether this was a strategic or serious was as unclear as Seppi's time with the trainer, though it does not seem realistic that Murray would call for a medical time out just because Seppi had.
Yet, the interval worked the same way as Murray broke back immediately having had time to gather himself whilst receiving treatment, leveling the fourth set at a game a piece.
A love service game followed for the Brit, which was succeeded by two break points and, inevitably given his composure in these situations and current momentum, so did a break of serve.
Murray took a 3-1 lead now, and a hold of serve to make it 4-1 would surely see the match wrapped up, though given its unpredictable nature so far, that was hardly a given. The world number three did exactly this though, and was even able to take a 5-1 lead by breaking Seppi once again, emphatically overcoming that 1-0 deficit he faced at the beginning of the set by winning five consecutive games.
Serving for the match, the crowd were jubilant as they anticipated victory for their home favourite who had struggled so horribly in the third set. A challenge by Murray that saw hawk-eye reveal his shot had caught the line by perhaps a millimetre produced roars from the crowd too, with everything well and truly going his way as he bounced around the court so confidently, earning two match points in the process.
The victory was secured with a fiery ace before Seppi and Murray enjoyed a laugh at the net, perhaps about that magical trainer whose strange involvement in the match will surely dominate the back pages tomorrow morning.
Bar that third set, Murray produced some simply incredible tennis throughout the match, whilst his psychological game was fantastic, helping him recover from a mental set back just after the hour mark.
Seppi fought valiantly and must be given credit for getting back into the match by winning a set, but he was never expected to trouble the British number one today in truth.
Murray will now face Ivo Karlovic in round four, who recorded a controversial victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga today, hitting the ball twice in one shot whilst the Frenchman was on a set point in the fourth, albeit going unpunished as the umpire failed to see the incident.
Despite the Croatian's frightening serve, Murray has not lost to Karlovic in any of their five encounters, four of them coming on hard court and one on grass at Wimbledon in 2012.