Earlier, defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka labored to a 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-4 win over Japan’s Taro Daniel. “To go far in the tournament you can’t play too many matches like this”.
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“I was struggling to win points at one stage”, he continued.
There was plenty of respect from Murray after the match, as he warmly consoled the 128th-ranked Czech and applauded him off court.
World number two Andy Murray again did it the hard way as he needed five sets to overcome French wildcard Mathias Bourgue to reach the third round of the French Open at Roland Garros. The second-seeded Murray acknowledged he can’t keep getting pushed to the limit if he has designs on adding a third Grand Slam title to his collection. It’s been a tough few days and I’m going to have to recover extremely well if I am to go far in this tournament.
The Scot has been forced to battle through two five set matches in his opening two rounds at Roland Garros, seeing off 37-year-old Radek Stepanek and wildcard Mathias Bourgue.
Murray improved to 21-7 in fifth sets as Stepanek slumped to 15-24 and 1-7 at the French Open.
Though his coach showed him footage featuring legendary boxer Mohammed Ali, Bourgue could not land the knockout blow after taking the lead after three sets. “I was very happy”.
If he hoped things would be less complicated when the match resumed yesterday he was mistaken, as Stepanek came within two points of an unlikely upset.
This is, after all, someone who is ranked 164th.
The Swiss said: “I normally also don’t like to play the week before a grand slam”.
Murray, whose form on the red clay in the French capital remains a mystery after he won the Italian Open in the build-up to the tournament, will take on big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic on Friday (May 27). Not much else to go on.
“It’s the only time when being old is OK”, Karlovic joked.
Murray got off to a solid start, opening a 6-2 2-0 lead and there was no indication of the coming meltdown.
Murray said of the 6ft 11in Croatian: “Physically the average rally length will only be a few shots, maybe three, four shots max. So that’s a positive there”, Murray said.
“When I’m losing I get very
frustrated”. The 2014 US Open finalist broke Andrey Kuznetsov of Russian Federation six times and saved seven break points in a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win.
The world number two refused to wilt though and secured a crucial break at 2-1 in the fourth to send the contest into a fifth set. All of the top contenders – second seed Agnieszka Radwanska, fourth seed Garbine Muguruza, sixth seed Simona Halep and 10th seed Petra Kvitova – moved into the third round comfortably.
But Bourgue had other ideas and reeled off eight games in a row to square the match take a grip of the third.
“I did come up with some lucky shots today”.
Bourgue’s level eventually dropped, but Murray deserves credit for limiting his own mistakes down the stretch.
At 22, Bourgue was playing in the main draw at a Grand Slam for the first time and had never previously faced a player in the top 50 let alone one of the world’s top two.
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Murray looked more lost than angry, appealing to his box for an answer to what on earth was happening.
