Murray makes it all FIGHT on the night

Big struggle against bogey rival but he battles through to the last 16

ANDY MURRAY survived a late night Centre Court scare to join Jo Konta in the last 16 at Wimbledon.

The world No.1 saved five set points to stop the thriller against Fabio Fognini going to a fifth set and said: “I feel OK but I didn’t feel I was moving as well today. But we have a couple of days now to get the body ready again.

“Obviously the end of the match was tense. I didn’t feel it was the best

IT started with doubt, it ended with a bit of belief. It began with a limp, it finished with just the hint of a swagger.

Andy Murray closed a week preceded by more than a pinch of pessimism with his hopes of a third Wimbledon title alive and well.

It was not emphatic, it was not fluent, it was not eye-catching, it was not a straight-sets statement of form.

It was nervy but, somehow, it was job done.

And Murray, for all the extremes of emotions he sends through the nation, somehow gets the job done more often than not.

Not at his most clinical, Murray somehow had to navigate his way past the craftiest of rivals.

He wore Fabio Fognini down. As most on Centre Court knew he would, even after dropping the second set and looking in grave peril in the fourth.

Considering the cloying pressure that gets more oppressive year-on-year, it is Murray’s reliability that has been remarkable.

With no one to share the burden of British hope, he has now reached the last 16 for 10 straight years. He has won 56 matches here and lost only nine.

In both a physical and mental sense, it is a seriously impressive body of work.

To deliver himself in peak condition, or close to peak condition, for every edition of this tournament is an achievement in itself. To cope with the weight of expectation is another.

Against the world No.29, Murray came into this contest with a 3-3 record from six meetings. He was obviously the hot favourite but it was never going to be a shoo-in.

Fognini was no formality but there is a clinical element to this mature version of Murray. He had yet to be seen in any serious adversity this year but his camp’s ears have yet to burn, only the sky above Centre Court blue.

The first blip at the start of the second set was followed by an immediate retrieval of the break that had Fognini in floor-thrashing mode.

Yet Murray reacted to further reverses in that second set and its eventual loss with a coolness bordering on the phlegmatic.

Maybe the era of Murray mouthing self-reproach has passed. There was only a hush of his people and a minor altercation with the umpire even in a fractious fourth set. And, physically, he looked fine. While his timing was often awry, particularly in the only set he has lost in three rounds, the Scot covered the court with that remarkable, permanent scamper. Fitness will not be an issue as he shapes up to take on Benoit Paire in the last 16.

Fitness was an issue for Fognini, who had to call for treatment to a problematic right ankle during the third set.

Eventually, after a handful of squandered set points and a final set looking inevitable, Murray closed it out 6-2 4-6 6-1 7-5.

It will not be a match for his career highlights reel, it will not raise the eyebrows of his Big Four adversaries but it was job done.

A week that began in a bit of a fret, finished if not in style, in satisfactory fashion. Now the serious stuff begins.