Australian Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 26 January 2009 /

Sean Calvert rounds up the latest happenings on a big day for the boys in the year's first Grand Slam.

It was curtains for British hopes on Day Eight at Melbourne and we have a new favourite for the men's singles title.

The day began with two retirements on Rod Laver Arena, as Gilles Simon advanced to the quarter-finals at the expense of Gael Monfils, and Serena Williams did the same at the expense of Victoria Azarenka.

The retirement of Monfils was due to a wrist injury picked up during the match, in which he was trailing by two sets to one demonstrates again that his fitness is always a worry for his backers.

The Frenchman really is an injury waiting to happen and it must be questioned whether his fragile body is able to last the course at a Slam.

Another retirement, this time Jie Zheng's against Svetlana Kuznetsova when 1-4 down in the opening set on Hisense, hastened the arrival on court of Murray.

All appeared to be well for the Scot early on as he cruised the first set 6-2 and it looked like his dominance over Verdasco would continue, however he was broken in the first game of the second set and went on to lose it 6-1.

The number four seed wasn't done though, despite looking somewhat exhausted, he roared back to life to take the third set by the same margin, finishing it off with a forehand winner and a Henman-style half-hearted fist pump.

Whether the flu that he has been suffering from or the searing heat of the day affected Murray, I'm not too sure, but he was gulping in the air at the start of the fourth.

It shouldn't really have been the sun that was a problem, as by now the court was in shade, but Murray was broken in his first service game of the set, thanks to two incorrect Hawkeye challenges, one of which landed right next to him on the baseline but he still got it wrong.

In the very next game he got another challenge horribly wrong that even the crowd all saw as long and consequently he was out of challenges for the set.

The audible expletives were mounting up too and he was fortunate not to receive a code violation for some of them, as the frustration began to tell.

At this point a barely audible chant of 'Flower of Scotland' started up on Hisense, but it did little to lighten Murray's mood, as there were no further breaks in the set and we were into a decider.

Murray was still well in the match at this point though and had the advantage of serving first in the final set, but he wasn't able to make much impression on the Spaniard's delivery.

The number four seed had his chances in an epic game six, but was unable to capitalise on a couple of break point chances and that seemed to drain Murray, as a forehand error handed Verdasco the vital break in the very next game.

The question now was would Verdasco be able to see it out?

He has a well documented history of struggling from winning positions, but he seems to have been dealing with that side of his game much better in recent times and this was no different, as yet another unreturnable serve deservedly game him the match and a first tour level win over the Scot.

So, it's all over for Murray, but Rafa Nadal went marching on last night with a comfortable straight sets win over Fernando Gonzalez.

The world number one impressed the layers so much in combination with Murray's defeat that he is now in to [2.52] for the title, but he has a tricky one against Simon next and that looks a touch short to me.

Gonzalez was never really in the match and he looked very flat after the near five-hour epic with Richard Gasquet in the previous round.

The Chilean did manage to move into a 3-0 lead at the beginning of the third set, but Nadal soon put him back in his place with five straight games and the match was over.

Last up on Rod Laver was Jo Wilfried Tsonga v James Blake, and this was always going to be a clash of who could hit the ball the hardest.

Blake, like Gonzalez before him, looked flat and Tsonga took the opening two sets comfortably 6-4, 6-4.

There was a delay in proceedings for the Australia Day fireworks midway in set number three and it didn't help Tsonga much, as it was Blake that used the timeout more effectively and was able to finally spark himself into life.

The American served for the third set at 5-3, but he couldn't manage to see it out and it went to a breaker that Tsonga dominated to ease to a straight sets success and a quarter-final match-up with Verdasco.

Elsewhere on Day Eight, Elena Dementieva and Carla Suarez Navarro both enjoyed straight sets wins over Dominika Cibulkova and Anabel Medina Garrigues and they will play each other for a place in the semi finals.

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