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Wawrinka keeps up winning run to reach Paris quarters
Reigning Champion Stanislas Wawrinka lit up a gloomy Roland Garros with his lurid day-glo yellow shirt as he reached the French Open quarter-finals with a dazzling 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-2 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki.
In an entertaining match featuring between the leg shots, a mid-match rally with a ballboy and an array of blinding backhand winners from Wawrinka, the Swiss third seed chalked up his fifth successive win over Troicki when the Serb netted a backhand.
The win earned Wawrinka an eighth successive win on clay, following his triumph in the Geneva tournament last weekend, but more importantly it allowed him to set up a quarter-final meeting with unheralded Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
Troicki kept Wawrinka on his toes during the first half of the contest, with the Swiss winning the first set on his eighth set point before the Serb bagged the second set on his fifth.
But all the running around he did in the first two sets caught up with Troicki midway through the third set as called on the trainer to manipulate his hip.
The treatment failed to have the desired effect and he fell to a 20th successive defeat against top-3 opponents.
Clinical Murray dispatches Isner to reach last eight
Andy Murray moved ominously into the French Open quarter-finals for the sixth time in his career with a clinical 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-3 defeat of American John Isner.
The second seed began the tournament scraping through back-to-back five-setters but has been a model of efficiency since and has his eyes fixed firmly on a first title at Roland Garros.
Isner took a 0-5 career record against Murray on to a murky Court Suzanne Lenglen but he stuck manfully to his task in the first set, denying the Briton the slightest whiff of a break.
The 15th seed had three set points in the tiebreak, the first of which, when serving at 6-5, he will be rueing.
Murray reacted superbly to return a booming first serve and Isner then failed to make the most of an inviting mid-court forehand, giving the Briton the chance to ram a backhand past him as he advanced to the net.
Three-time Roland Garros semi-finalist Murray converted his second set point when Isner hit a forehand wide.
After a rain delay, the second set proved another tight tussle before Isner cracked under pressure at 4-5 -- Murray breaking for the first time to move two sets clear with the help of a delightful angled drop shot.
It was routine after that for Murray who will play either Frenchman Richard Gasquet or Kei Nishikori next.
Aggressive Muguruza downs Kuznetsova
Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza reached the French Open quarter-finals for the third year in a row when a solid display earned her a 6-3, 6-4 victory against former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Sunday.
Muguruza, who has yet to make it to the last four in Paris, played aggressively throughout, leaving little breathing space for the Russian 13th seed, the 2009 Roland Garros champion.
Muguruza peppered the court with winners -- which made up for numerous unforced errors -- and broke decisively on her seventh opportunity to lead 5-3 in the opening set.
She closed it out with a booming forehand winner and broke again in the third game of the second set with a service return winner.
Kuznetsova saw a lifeline when she broke back to 4-4 as Muguruza started to get inconsistent, only for the Spaniard to break again in the following game with a fine passing shot.
Muguruza, however, showed signs of nerves and wasted two match points before serving a double fault. She regained her composure, though, and wrapped it up on her fifth match point when Kuznetsova's backhand sailed long.
The Spaniard will next face either American Shelby Rogers or Romanian 25th seed Irina Camelia Begu.
Spaniard Ramos-Vinolas sends Raonic packing
Eighth seed Milos Raonic was swept aside 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 by Spanish claycourter Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the fourth round of the French Open.
The big-serving Canadian could make little impression against the dogged, 28-year-old left-hander who finished the contest with an angled smash on his third match point.
Ramos-Vinolas will play either defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka or Viktor Troicki in his first grand slam quarter-final, having never been past the second round in his 18 appearances in the four majors.
"I think the slow conditions helped me a little bit today, it was a great day for me. I returned really good and played very solid," Barcelona-born Ramos-Vinolas said on court.
It was a disappointing day for Raonic who struggled to impose his greater power in humid conditions and dropped his usually reliable serve five times.
He took only one of his seven breakpoint chances, one of which came in the last game of the match when his opponent produced a forehand winner to keep Raonic at bay.
Raonic, who announced on Friday that he would work with seven-times grand slam champion John McEnroe during the forthcoming grasscourt season, had been troubled by a hip injury in his third-round win over Andrej Martin.
