Andy gets his kicks from sweet sixteen

If you are Andy Murray, you walk off to a hero’s ovation, round up your training team and go for a game of football on an empty court at Roland Garros.

Murray, keen on expending a bit more energy, and coach Miles Maclagan took on his trainer and physio, Jez Green and Matt Little in front of a crowd of bemused fans in a warm-down one-touch kickabout in the evening sun.

In a darker place, Janko Tipsarevic was explaining why he had retired when two sets down but felt he could have won the match.

Not sure about that one and neither was Murray for although the British No1 was broken three times in the first set, he walked to the chair after 74 minutes having won it 7-6.

“I’m not sure I saw anything wrong with him in the first set until he called the trainer,” said Murray .

Murray had been down 5-2 on the Suzanne Lenglen court, an intimate bowl of a place, and the crowd who had come for Friday night fun in the sun, roared their approval.

Tipsarevic called for the trainer and some rather intimate treatment of his own which seemed to have a wondrous effect as he broke the Scot’s opening serve.

Murray’s reply was instant and from that point on he delighted the fans with some apparently effortless passing shots, or the occasional double-handed backhand down the line.

‘‘Going behind on clay is a bit easier because you can get back with longer rallies,” said Murray. “You just fight and try to come back. It’s what we have been working on, saying don’t panic, find ways.’’

Tipsarevic was trying to shorten the points with ‘bombs’ as he called them but they were either duds or self-exploding and Murray ripped off two love service games to sandwich his breaking of his limping opponent.

When he broke him again with a cross-court backhand winner, the board had barely clicked to 2-0 when he shook Murray’s hand and bowed out.

“I suffered a hamstring strain in the middle of the first set and because I felt pain on my right leg, I put pressure on my left and it fell apart, too,’’ said Tipsarevic.

“It is disappointing because I had a gameplan to win and it was working till the injury.’’

There are many sweet sights in Paris on a Friday night but none better to Murray’s eyes than his name going into the last 16 of the French Open for a Sunday match.

What Murray takes forward to his toughest match yet, against Mario Cilic, is another experience on clay, another example of his fighting spirit and determination. There is far more to Murray on the red brick dust these days than just spirit. His tactics are good, his balance is much better, he is sliding into shots and he will need all of that and more when he faces Cilic.

The Croatian, 20, is another of the tour’s young warriors, has just reached his highest ranking of 13 and like Murray is further into the French Open than before.

For Murray it is another little bit of tennis history. He only advanced past the last 16 for the first time at Wimbledon last year and then reached the final of the US.

Rafael Nadal hammered former world No1 Lleyton Hewitt and then lashed the sport’s drug testing at all hours of the day as ‘crazy.’ “I want this sport to be as clean as possible,” said the four-times French champion, “I don’t know if from a legal point it is correct to know where someone is every single moment of your life.

“I had one night free and my mother called to say these guys were at my house. I had to take an antidoping control. Other players were tested at 6am. It’s crazy.”

Nadal also said it was “impossible” that French star Richard Gasquet, who has been suspended, would have taken cocaine.

Nadal added: “You go to a party... if you kiss a girl who has taken cocaine, anything can happen. This can destroy your career and this is most unfair.”