Murray plays it straight again

Andy Murray survived a case of the Wimbledon wobbles to defeat Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets and reach the quarter-finals for a sixth successive year.

The world number two had been superb in his first three matches but had to show his fighting qualities today, particularly in the second set as he recovered from five games to two down and then 5-3 adrift in the tie-break.

Youzhny was a quarter-finalist here last year and is a talented grass-court player, but the third set was largely one-way traffic as Murray came through 6-4 7-6 (7/5) 6-1 to make the last eight, where he will meet Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.

Murray's mantra throughout the fortnight has been not to look more than one round ahead, and he told the BBC: ``I don't expect to come into these sort of events to win them, there's no guarantees.

“I’ve only won one. I’ll just keep trying hard to keep winning. It gets harder as the tournament goes on.

“Serena Williams lost today, she doesn’t lose particularly often. Roger (Federer) lost and Rafa (Nadal) lost. All these guys and girls are better players than me and have achieved a lot more than me so if they can lose, so can I.”

The Scot was happy with the way he came through in the end today, saying: “It was a tough match, the first couple of sets especially.

“He also had a couple of chances at the start of the third set as well but once I got ahead in the third I concentrated very hard not to let him back in like I did in the second set.

“I just managed to turn the second set around in the breaker at the right moment. I came up with some good shots from 5-2 down.”