No.4 seed Andy Murray has described his fourth-round victory over Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin as 'boring' after the world No.94 was forced to pull out early in the third set with a hip injury.
Kukushkin never looked right throughout the match and Murray was well on top 6-1 6-1 1-0 when the match was called to a halt, handing the Scot passage to the quarter-finals.
While admitting that spending just 48 minutes on court could be beneficial to his campaign for his first Grand Slam title, he was completely underwhelmed by the whole experience.
"It's just boring. There was nothing happening on the court. It's like, it would have been nice to have come off and been like, 'I played unbelievable and he stopped. I didn't have to do anything'," he said.
"I was just hitting the ball in the court and he wasn't running. He was making mistakes the first or second ball of the rally. That was it. Complete contrast to my match with (Michael) Llodra the other day."
Murray said he had no issue with the nature of his progression, but that it lacked the usual atmosphere of a fourth-round match.
"I've got no problem with it, it's not so much like winning boring matches. If you win a 6-2 6-2 match and you don't have to save any break points or anything and there's no ups and down, that's different," he said.
"Today there was nothing. There was no atmosphere 'cause there was no points. That was it."
Murray said it was for the benefit of the match that Kukushkin pulled the pin when he did.
"I thought it was best he retired, yeah, because it was pointless. He wasn't running. The people probably weren't enjoying the match that much. I certainly wasn't because nothing was happening."
"There's no real good points or anything 'cause he couldn't move properly. Sometimes it's best just to stop."
Kukushkin defended his decision to take to the court despite suffering the hip flexor injury in his previous win over Gael Monfils.
"I always I try to play, I mean, till the end. I think it's only second time in my career that I retired during the match," he said.
"I always try to play till the end for the people who came to the stadium, for everybody. I mean, normally I have retire it even first set when I saw I cannot run, I cannot serve, I cannot compete against Andy."
"But I was just trying to stay in the match as long as possible. Already it was dangerous for my future, for the next few weeks, so I just was not able to continue."
He apologised to the fans who came and saw the match, saying he wanted to put on a spectacle.
"It's tough, of course. A lot of people on the stadium, on the television, they watch this match. I mean, I always try to show my best. For me it's so sad that this match was not so entertainment," he said.
"Probably it was not fun to watch, so I feel also so bad for that. But unfortunately with that injury I was not able to do anything."
The one positive Murray took out of the match was that he was able to conserve some energy ahead of his quarter final against Japan's Kei Nishikori, who upset No.6 seed Jo Wilfried Tsonga.
"It's perfect because you