Patience has been the key to Andy Murray’s new-found prowess on clay, according to his French Open opponent Radek Stepanek.
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Murray admitted he sometimes feels embarrassed when he sees replays of matches, but said in L’Equipe: “When you’re on the court, a lot of the things that happen are not always really a true reflection of how you feel”.
Veteran Stepanek resorted to time-wasting and refused to leave his chair at 5-0 down in the third set.
In between, the Scot was warned for swearing while Stepanek was also hit with a code violation for time wasting as he desperately demanded that the tie be called off for the night after the third set.
After Stepanek held again to make it 4-2, conditions were deemed too dark, leaving Murray facing a very important service game when play resumes.
Those involve players such as No. 5 Kei Nishikori, who has a two-set lead against Simone Bolelli; No. 23 Jack Sock, headed to a fifth set against Robin Haase of the Netherlands; and 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, up a break at 3-1 in the third set against Yaroslava Shvedova.
Djokovic, last year’s runners-up, is seeking to win the only Grand Slam to have eluded him so far and will play Yen-Hsun Lu, the world No 95.
No. 4 women’s seed Garbine Muguruza, on her 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Anna Schmiedlova: “We didn’t have time to warm up, only the 10 minutes”.
It will be Nadal’s seventh appearance in the Chinese City, the Spaniard will defend the final reached a year ago where he was beaten by Djokovic, who has been winning six titles in a row.
After dropping the first set, Muguruza had to save nine break points just in the opening game of the second set.
Wawrinka is a two-time Grand Slam title victor; Rosol never has made it past the third round in 20 major tournaments and is 110-137 in tour-level matches.
Four seeded women exited, most notably No. 7 Roberta Vinci, the Italian who ended Serena Williams’ Grand Slam bid at last year’s U.S. Open.
Victory would give the 26-year-old Japanese his 50th Grand Slam win.
Wawrinka won the title at home in Geneva for a boost of confidence – downing Rosol in the semifinals – but then faced a quick turnaround.
After a delay of more than 2½ hours, play has finally started at the French Open. He had a break point for 4-0 but failed to convert.
On a nippy day in Paris that had spectators wearing thick coats after a spell of rain, less than half of Philippe Chatrier court was full for Stan Wawrinka’s clash with Lukas Rosol at the French Open.
Last year, Wawrinka’s pink-checkered shorts were a major topic of conversation at Roland Garros, so much so that the Swiss player draped them over the table in front of him during his final news conference.
She broke for a 5-4 lead after Kvitova hit three double faults but the two-time Wimbledon champion won the next three games to seal the match.
Weather forecasts predicted the heavy rain would subside in the afternoon to leave sunshine and showers.
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Stepanek, the oldest player in the draw at the age of 37, produced a sprightly start to the match and frustrated Murray with a string of drop shots.
