Men's Tennis "Rewind" 2008: Murray-Gasquet When Murray Turned Wimbledon On-Side

I want to continue this waltz down memory lane with a match that we saw unfold just this year.

While many see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s epic Wimbledon final as the match of this years championship, a young Brit will see it very differently after his own success at SW19.

On the final day of what had been a considerably wet June, the sun decided to stay out long enough to give us a fascinating end to this fourth round match in this year Wimbledon Men’s draw.

Both players Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet were grateful that the sun stuck around for as long as it did, as the match continued long into the evening eventually being concluded at 21:29.

The sun shone on the hopes of the Frenchman Gasquet for long periods in the match, only to be thwarted by late serge by the local favourite.

These two lay in the top twelve in the world, and with the duo meeting at such an early stage of the tournament we were guaranteed to have early drop out for one of the top seeds.

It was Gasquet who started with the intent and the status of the higher seed as he out battled Murray in the opening set to silence the Wimbledon crowd.

At 4-3 Gasquet missed two break points as Murray clung on to his service game.

But his grip was to break in game 11 as, after saving four further break points Gaquet converted the fifth with the aplomb that we had seen from him all year.

The Frenchman reeked of confidence and ruthlessness, surprising? Not a bit

The second set gave Gasquet the result he deserved from the first, a straightforward 6-3 victory as Murray’s own confidence was sapped as was the belief of the home crowd.

In truth Murray has always had problems tackling the Centre Court crowd, always preferring the hard courts of America where they are somehwhat more forgiving, a country he made his name as a youngster.

If he were ever to turn the crowd in his favour his effort had to greatly improve from the one he produced in the opening third of this encounter.

But as quickly as Gasquet had created his lead of two sets it diminished, just as the light upon Centre Court.

And almost as simultaneously the SW19 crowd came to the aid of the Brit, and the with it the match changed its direction.

The decisive set of the match was the third, a set that Gasquet will look back on not just when he reviews Wimbledon, but his entire year on the tour.

His suspect nerve couldn’t serve out the match when 5-3 up, and Murray broke back to take the set into a nervous tie-break.

At last we could see the Murray that we all missed last year.

The resurgent Scot took a 4-0 lead in the tie-break before retrieving a seemingly impossible back hand volley magnificently to the delight of the Wimbledon crowd to secure the third set 7-6.

It seemed that at that split second the match had turned on his head.

The confidence was drained from Gasquet, and simultaneously flowed into Murray and it took control of him, just like he was to control the match deep into the night.

The seeming dominance of Gasquet was gone, his invincibility extinguished, and his hopes of winning up for debate for first time this afternoon.

Just twenty minutes later we were all square as Murray took the fourth set 6-2 with the ease that Gasquet had taken a two set-lead and suddenly he saw his advantage washed away, like many of this weeks opening round matches.

The final set was as tense affair as your ever likely to see, with the light fading and time running out we ran over to 21:00.

Murray got an early break in, only for Gasquet to miss his own chance and with it send his hopes of a Wimbledon quarter-final crashing and burning.

Appeals to continue the match tomorrow were coming from the Frenchman once Murray had levelled the scores.

But we were playing to a finish, and as a result there was only going to be one winner.

Murray converted his second match point to send the home crowd in raptures, and complete his first five set turn around of his career as he took the fifth set 6-4.

For Murray this match kicked start his season, and finally convinced his critics that he can perform when the going gets tough.

As for Gasquet, his season never recovered as he ended it outside the worlds top twenty, a huge price to pay for losing match he controlled from the outset.