Gaston Gaudio was the last player to win the French Open after opening with two five-set victories in 2004 – and the only player of the Open era to do so.
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Murray could only manage 12 points in the second set. “I know it’s a different match, different game style, but I felt a little bit better, which is good”, he continued.
Paris: Andy Murray will be hoping he can see off giant Ivo Karlovic in straight sets as the French Open third round gets underway at Roland Garros on Friday having battled hard to get through his first two rounds. I’m obviously glad to win the tie-break and get off after a fairly quick match.
The most uncomfortable part of Murray’s afternoon came when interviewer Fabrice Santoro persuaded him to say in French what he would be ordering for dinner.
But rather than have the match in the bag, Murray suffered an unlikely implosion to gift his 22-year-old opponent a route back into the match as every aspect of his game disintegrated. “In the second and third sets I think I played pretty good tennis”, Nishikori said. Will that trend continue or will Karlovic be able to serve his way to an upset? I was very proud. “I know if I play well anything can happen'”. Someone who usually plays on the lower-tier Challenger tour and never before faced anyone ranked better than 55th.
Murray’s strength off the return and superb hand skills enabled him to place the ball in the most awkward spots for Karlovic.
Before long the Scot, jabbing his returns back to the feet of the advancing Croatian, had surged to 5-0 and it was to be his easiest set of the tournament so far, lasting 26 minutes. Not much else to go on.
“It’s the only time when being old is OK”, Karlovic joked.
Murray wrapped up the first set in 24 minutes, breaking Karlovic’s opening serve in each of the first two sets before taking the second in 39 minutes. There were only three points of more than nine shots in the whole match. “So that’s a positive there”, Murray said. “Also try and get some good food in me, good fuel, and try and recover as best I can the next 48 hours”.
Murray will face either big serving American 15th seed John Inner next.
Second seed Agnieszka Radwanska took advantage of Caroline Garcia’s weak serve to advance into the third round with a 6-2 6-4 victory.
The third seed will take on Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on the last match of the day scheduled for the Philippe Chatrier Centre Court. I lost my way on the court today, ” Murray said, for quite a while”.
But, by his own admission, Murray has been well short of that level so far in the French capital. The Croat has won 87 per cent of points on his first serve and won 48 out of his 50 service games even on the slower clay surface.
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When it was over, Murray looked at his guest box and pointed at his heart. “For sure it was some up and down, could have been better, but winning three sets, it’s always good”.
