Gasquet blown away by the skill and the spirit of Murray

Tim Who? Andy Murray has spent the first years of his professional life attempting to emerge from the shadow of the man who carried the flag for British tennis for more than a decade and last night the 21-year-old Scot took his boldest step yet into the Centre Court sunshine.

With Tim Henman, so much an inspiration for his successor, watching in admiration from the BBC commentary box, Murray claimed a place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time with a thrilling 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over France's Richard Gasquet.

The bare facts barely do justice to a wonderful contest as Murray won a match from two sets down for only the second time in his career. For two sets Gasquet played champagne tennis, battering Murray with a dazzling display of strokeplay, but was broken for the first time when serving for the match at 5-4 as the Scot refused to give up. From there the momentum swung in Murray's favour as the British No 1 whipped the Centre Court into a frenzy of excitement.

Gasquet, whose temperament has frequently been called into question, appeared to be unhappy with both the partisan support and the failing light, but other matches have finished as late as this in the last few days and the reality was that the Frenchman's nerve failed him. When Murray struck the match-winning serve the clock showed 9.30pm and the contest had lasted four hours.

Murray, going beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, now faces Rafael Nadal, who has reached the final for the last two years, but after the way he played here he will have no fears. He is in the best shape of his life and feels fit and ready to win a Grand Slam tournament. He is only the fourth British man in the Open era to reach a Wimbledon quarter-final, following Roger Taylor, Henman and Greg Rusedski.

Having won his first three matches without dropping a set, Murray faced a challenge of a different order in 22-year-old Gasquet, long regarded as the best French player of his generation. He is a player of typical French elegance, even if his back-to-front baseball cap is more Central Park than Bois de Boulogne. His one-handed backhand is a beautiful shot and he used it to power a flow of winners down the line.

The conditions and the setting could hardly have been better for such a stirring match. When it started at 5.30pm a packed Centre Court was bathed in warm sunshine, with barely a hint of a breeze. Panama hats were de rigueur in the royal box, while the most popular headgear elsewhere was the yellow and green worn by Lleyton Hewitt's supporters from earlier in the afternoon.

Initially at least Gasquet did not look like a player who has supposedly been suffering a crisis of confidence. Until he arrived at the All England Club, where he reached the semi-finals last year, he had not won three matches in a row since January.

For two sets Murray struggled to find a rhythm as Gasquet attacked his second serve mercilessly. The way Murray can vary the pace of his shots has always been one of his strengths, but here it was the Scot who found himself surprised by his opponent's sudden accelerations. Striking the ball with formidable racket head speed, the world No 10 regularly had Murray hurrying his shots or flailing at thin air.

If Murray looked nervous in the opening game, the Scot quickly settled and the first set developed into a high-quality contest. Murray played the shot of the set when he returned a smash with a brilliant backhand cross-court winner at 3-3, and with the Scot serving at 5-6 Centre Court caught light in response to thrilling play from both men. From 15-40 down Murray saved two set points, firstly with an ace and then with a backhand down the line after flying across the court to chase down a drop shot.

Even better was to follow on Gasquet's third set point moments later. Again Murray had to race across to stay alive and this time the Scot thumped a backhand cross-court. Gasquet dived for the volley, only to see the ball drop into the net. A brave serve-and- volley saved set point number four, but on the fifth Murray put a volley out.

Murray's disappointment at losing the first set appeared to carry over into the second as the Scot dropped his serve with a double fault and three poor drop shots. At 3-1 Gasquet saved a break point when Murray put a return in the net. At 5-3 Murray saved three set points, but Gasquet converted the fourth with a sound volley. Until then the Scot had been a model of good behaviour, but when his frustration boiled over he was given an official warning for an audible obscenity.

Murray saved five break points in the fifth game of the third set only for his resistance to crumble four games later as Gasquet broke to lead 5-4. Murray, however, has a wonderful fighting spirit and after two-and-a-quarter hours he finally broke as Gasquet served for the match. A double fault on the last point indicated a possible failing of the Frenchman's nerve, which was confirmed in the tie- break. Murray took a 4-0 lead before winning the set with a wonderful backhand played from several feet outside the tramline.