Considering that world No2 Andy Murray has reached the semi-finals of the French Open three times in his last four visits, and at least the quarter-finals in five of his last six, he had looked like a man playing uphill on Roland Garros’s vast Philippe Chatrier court.
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Paris: Andy Murray’s French Open campaign gathered pace as he made light work of big serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic to reach the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory on Friday.
Earlier, Murray had shown a ideal fight back in his first two rounds of the second major of the season as he recovered from a two-set deficit, first against Czech Republic’s Radek Stepanek and then against French wild card Mathias Bourgue.
Number two seed Murray has played ten grueling sets over his first two matches and covered an extraordinary distance of 7349.9 metres.
“You could say I have had three interesting and freaky days”.
The clay courts of Roland Garros host the second Grand Slam of the season. Now, I can just move on, concentrate on the tennis. Halep won 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in what was the 18-year-old Osaka’s first match against a top-10 player.
Where Murray’s mind will be is anybody’s guess after he tuned in and out of Wednesday’s match like a dodgy, medium-wave radio signal, nearly dropping off the dial towards the end of the second set when he lost 16 points on the run. He dictated the points and made me run.
Next up for Murray on Friday is 6ft 11in Ivo Karlovic, who is likely also to be feeling tired after finally overcoming Australia’s Jordan Thompson 12-10 in the fifth set in round two.
“If I’m to go far in this tournament I can’t play too many matches like this”.
Asked later if he thought his subdued body language might have something to do with his first-round efforts, Murray said: “It was a pretty stressful couple of days”.
Karlovic is the oldest man in the French Open third round since 38-year-old Jimmy Connors in 1991. While 6ft 10in Karlovic failed to even get a break point on the Murray serve, the No.27 seed sent down 14 aces with his serve sometimes unplayable deliveries and won 77 per cent of points on his first serve. This player has so much talent and as he gets older his likelihood of doing something great slips so this might be his best chance.
“I got off to a quick start and against someone like Ivo, that’s important”.
Murray had spent more than seven hours on court in the first two rounds, but he showed no ill effects as he began superbly against Karlovic.
Quite what Karlovic and Murray will cook up on Friday is anyone’s guess, but expect the unexpected.
Murray’s command of the situation continued in the second set, a lovely drop shot when serving at 2-1 up demonstrating this.
“The return has normally been the strongest part of my game but against him it’s not always up to you”.
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Watson lost 6-1 6-3 to 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova while Edmund was beaten 6-4 6-4 6-4 by 15th seed John Isner. I hope I continue to play like today, it’s only the first round.
