Second seed Andy Murray had his feathers ruffled but scrapped his way into the Australian Open quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-4 7-6(4) victory over local world number 17 Bernard Tomic on Monday.
The Briton, four-times a runner-up at Melbourne Park, was close to exasperation after being broken four times by the talented Australian but dug deep when it mattered to reach the last eight for the seventh year in a row.
Tomic showed flashes of the quality that has had Australia raving about his potential since his early teens but was unable to maintain the level of his performance for sufficiently long periods to cause an upset.
Murray clinched the third set tiebreak when Tomic went long with a return after two and a half hours on Rod Laver Arena to set up a quarter-final meeting with Spanish eighth seed David Ferrer.
Also, Johanna Konta became the first British woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final for 32 years by beating Ekaterina Makarova at the Australian Open.
Konta, making her debut in the main draw, fought back to beat the 21st seed 4-6 6-4 8-6 in the fourth round.
The last British woman to play in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam was Jo Durie, at Wimbledon in 1984.
It means Britain has male and female representation in the last eight of a Grand Slam for the first time for 39 years.
Sue Barker, Robin Drysdale and John Lloyd all reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 1977.
Murray’s victory came less than 48 hours after he rushed to hospital to visit father-in-law Nigel Sears.
Sears, the coach of Ana Ivanovic, was in Rod Laver Arena on Saturday when he collapsed and had to be carried away on a stretcher.
