Andy Murray dug deep to knock over 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez and advance to the US Open fourth round in New York tonight.
The 17th-seeded Scot beat the higher-ranked Chilean 6-3 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-2 in a tempestuous match that lasted two hours 44 minutes on Grandstand court at Flushing Meadows.
Having breezed through the previous round with a 6-0 6-1 6-1 demolition of Italy's Alessio Di Mauro, the 19-year-old Scot knew he would be facing a step up in class against the hard-hitting Gonzalez.
Quite how tough became apparent in the first game when Gonzalez broke Murray's serve.
The teenager was having trouble coming to terms with his opponent's powerful returns and, having got back on level terms at 2-2, let slip a double fault on break point.
Murray's return was working just as well though and he forced another break to level at 3-3, going from strength to strength to take the first set by serving to love.
Gonzalez was not about to quit and he stepped his game up a notch with a break at 3-4 in the second, from which point he took the set 6-3.
Murray was struggling to find his rhythm and he let the third set drift away from him early on when he was broken in the third game.
At 5-2 down, Gonzalez served for the set, and completed his task with an ace that left Murray facing up to the fact he would have to go five sets in order to turn this match round.
The fourth set was very tight, going with serve as neither player offered up a break-point opportunity until the eighth game when Murray eked out two.
He made the all-important breakthrough by sending Gonzalez deeper and deeper into the corners until the Chilean simply ran out of space and sent a return into the net.
The momentum had swung back to Murray as he levelled the match and began the final set by breaking twice to race into a 4-0 lead.
At 40-30 and 4-1 down, Gonzalez was clearly rattled and he vented his frustration on his racquet, ending its usefulness with a vicious whack on the hardcourt surface and breaking it into pieces.
The Chilean escaped with a warning but lost the game on the next point, needing to hold serve to save the match.
And even when he won a point, Gonzalez incurred a code violation and point penalty for sending the ball out of the stadium after Murray had hit it long. That provoked further anger from the Chilean and his supporters and another heated discussion with the chair umpire.
Gonzalez kept his temper in check just enough to hold off a Murray match point and win the game but the Scot wasted no time on his own serve, earning himself triple match point and finishing off the 10th seed at the first opportunity to cap a fantastic victory.
Murray will now face either Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot or seventh seed Nikolai Davydenko as he bids to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time in his short career.
