ANDY Murray dug himself out of another hole at Roland Garros to defeat Richard Gasquet and reach his fourth French Open semi-final.

There the world No 2 will face his biggest test yet against defending champion Stan Wawrinka as he bids to make the final for the first time.

If he is to do so and complete his set of slam finals, he surely cannot afford the same dips that nearly resulted in him being two sets down to Frenchman Gasquet despite having led 5-2 in both.

But, for the umpteenth time in his career, Murray came good just at the right time and ran away with the match in the third and fourth sets to win 5-7 7-6 (7/3) 6-0 6-2 after three hours and 23 minutes.

Having been taken to five sets in his opening two matches by Radek Stepanek and Mathias Bourgue, Murray now stands on the brink of history.

The Scot said: “There was some great tennis, some fun points to watch, a lot of drop shots. Both of us had our chances in the first two sets and it was very important for me to win the second set.

“It was a very physical match and it would have been tough for me to come back.”

Murray added of Wawrinka: “He’s obviously played great tennis here in the last couple of years. It’s going to be extremely tough. Hopefully I can play my best tennis and try to reach my first final here.”

Novak Djokovic is playing catch-up as he finally got the better of Roberto Bautista Agut and the Paris weather to belatedly move into the quarter-finals.

The pair began their match just after midday on Tuesday, already a day late, and finally completed it at 1.47pm yesterday, with Djokovic winning 3-6 6-4 6-1 7-5.

The Serb, who becomes the first player to win $100 million in prize money, now faces having to play five times in six days, starting with a quarter-final against Tomas Berdych today.

Serena Williams made up for lost time by racing into the quarter-finals by overcoming Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-1. She next meets Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva.

Meanwhile the wrist injury that forced Rafael Nadal out of the French Open has lead to his withdrawal from the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club.