TENNIS in DEPTH.

Andy Murray’s campaign at the French Open ended on a darkening Court Suzanne Lenglen after he was totally outplayed by 15th seed Tomas Berdych.

The Czech player faced just one break point in the match as he ran out a 6-4 7-5 6-3 winner in two hours and 16 minutes to set up a quarter-final against Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny.

It is only the second time he has made the last eight of a Grand Slam and he denies Murray the opportunity to at least match last year’s run to the quarter-finals.

The encounter was scheduled as the fourth and last match on Court Suzanne Lenglen and when the rain arrived with the Czech leading 6-4 3-4 at 8pm local time, it seemed that would be it for the day.

But the weather cleared sufficiently for another 50 minutes of play and things went from bad to worse for fourth seed Murray as he dropped serve again to fall two sets behind, before two breaks in the third set brought a swift conclusion.

It was the third time in seven days that Murray had played on Roland Garros’s second show court and, after the five-set win over Richard Gasquet and a four-set defeat of Marcos Baghdatis, he found himself up against an even tougher opponent.

Berdych has an uncomplicated game based around a strong serve, heavy, flat groundstrokes and attacking anything short, and this straightforward approach was too much for Murray.

The Scot faced break points in four of his five service games in the first set, reserving his best moments for rescuing himself, but serving at 49% he was giving Berdych too many chances to tee off with big returns and then dominate from the forecourt.

Berdych’s conversion rate on the break points was poor but, facing little or no pressure on his own serve, he needed to take just one and did so when Murray netted a limp backhand in game eight.

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