TENNIS FRENCH OPEN:ANDY MURRAY, apparently restored to full working order, held his nerve and shredded everyone else's in an hour and six minutes of quality angst to take the remaining fifth set against Viktor Troicki and advance to the quarter-finals of the French Open for the second time.

Heavyweight title fights have ended with less drama.

Murray’s 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 win took nearly four hours over an evening and a windy early afternoon on Court Suzanne Lenglen and, his twisted right ankle no longer hampering his movement, the world number four will be back today to play Juan Ignacio Chela.

On a day when the jack-rabbit rather than the cripple turned up, Murray clearly benefited from a solid pre-match workout on Court 12. The agonies of the previous evening, when rooted to the spot for the first 25 minutes, seemingly had passed.

Now, with more rest and treatment, he surely has as good a chance as he will ever have to reach the semi-finals here. He has beaten Chela, ranked 34 in the world, six times out of seven, his only loss in their first match, at the Australian Open five years ago.

Beyond that relatively routine challenge lies Rafael Nadal, who plays Robin Soderling in the other quarter-final on that side of the draw.

Murray and Troicki started their one-set shoot-out in sunshine and finished in spitting rain and light wind. The Scot had seven break points, five of which he squandered, the Serb just one, which he took to send a shiver through the crowd in the sixth game.

It was some passage of play. As Troicki swung through a smash for the first point, a ballboy near the umpire’s chair inexplicably darted on to the court, almost colliding with the player, even as the shot was beating Murray’s reach on the baseline. Ruling a distraction, the umpire had no choice but to replay the point. Troicki gathered himself and broke for 4-2. Murray had break point at 30-40 on Troicki’s serve but he held for 5-2 and things were looking grim for the Scot.

But Troicki could not keep his grip on the lead and Murray served to love then broke back to set up a fitting climax to a match that had everything.

Murray, visibly irritated by corporate guests taking their places in his sight line as if sitting down to complete a business deal, saved the best shot of the match until the end, a scorching backhand cross-court that went so close to the line that Troicki could not make even a gesture of stabbing at it.

Before that wondrous conclusion to a match of eddying fortunes, Murray and Troicki joined in a tense battle of wills in the deciding set. Some of Troicki’s drop shots were sublime and he put up a tigerish fight at the end, saving three match points before that sublime Murray backhand settled the issue.

Roger Federer will face Novak Djokovic in a blockbuster semi-final after seeing off Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). The 2009 champion is the only man to have reached the last four without dropping a set and he never really looked in any trouble yesterday, although it was far from a vintage performance.

Between them, Federer and Monfils hit nearly 100 unforced errors, with the ninth seed contributing 53 of them, but it was the 41 winners from Federer that proved the difference. The strong wind made life difficult for both players, with Federer in particular mis-timing a lot of shots early on, allowing Monfils to break his serve in the third game.

However, the world number three soon hit back before another break in the 10th game saw him clinch the second set.

Monfils, who had lost to Federer in the semi-finals in 2008 and the quarters in 2009, completed an epic win over David Ferrer on Monday but he just did not seem to have the power to trouble the Swiss.

Federer began the second set with a run of three games in a row and, although Monfils briefly broke back, he then threw in a horror show of a game, missing a smash from on top of the net and serving two double-faults in a row to concede another break. That was that as far as the second set was concerned and, given Federer had never lost a Grand Slam match from two sets up, the match seemed certain to follow.

The Swiss is now the only man who can stop Djokovic becoming world number one and equalling John McEnroe’s record start to a season of 42 straight wins.