Andy can stay in touch, yet a break behind. He can hardly make anything happen on Z‘s serve atm.

We can be grateful to Z that despite some big tennis he misses here and there. Andy should have won the first set at 5:4 had he not played the SP so harmlessly, I think. But I am also fine with a TB win.

I do not like his shot selection at times. He has made life difficult for himself by inviting Z to win the point.

I couldn‘t watch the match so had to follow the livescore. Now at home I have watched the replay. Again some drama which the numbers do not tell: 3 MP against him, 2 mini-breaks at the very start of the TB against him. And yet… A good win!

When I was watching the video, others popped up. One was a 45-minute-interview in AUS a fortnight ago, so rather recently. Very much recommended!

Btw, Korda has reached the QF with a win in five sets over Hubi, which underlines the brilliant shape he took to AUS.

Shame that the Murray Rollercoaster came to a standstill. I had just been enjoying it so much.
Re the press conference: Andy‘s facial expression spoke of disappointment to my mind. He was well aware that he had had the chance to reach the second week. All the more important it is to climb up the ranking again to avoid these tough first rounds which sap so much energy. But after all he was pleased with his level and quite rightly so: the change to trying to dictate more points, a more active approach paid off. Good to learn when he plans his next tournament. I will be sitting in front of the screen again.

Very promising performance from Andy. Pro-active play, resilience, smart tennis. Some of it was painfully missed over the past years. Long may it continue!

He certainly made the world take notice again this week.

This is very satisfying. Many people who do not follow tennis outside GS were certainly not even aware that he was still playing. And he so deserves making the headlines here.

After the first set, when I feared the worst, Andy made it a close match. With a little luck towards the end, he could have wrestled the momentum back, but eventually he was running out of steam, understandably. My comm Boris Becker (!) remarked after the Kokkinakis match that the scheduling robbed Andy of a fair chance to compete on the highest level.

RBA plays like a machine. I still admire Andy for putting up such a fight.

Unfortunately, Andy does not get too many free points

And somehow he has ground it out. Fabulous. RBA with few, very few wobbles, but they let Andy back into the match.

And we have a match.

Andy has realised that he cannot afford to get involved in these long rallies. RBA is simply flawless.