It’s doubtful that Murray will figure out the reason for his poor start to the French Open, but it’s not an explanation he needs to seek out.
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Second seed Andy Murray and defending champion Stan Wawrinka target places in the French Open third round on Wednesday after both men needed marathon five-setters to get through their openers.
Nishikori succeeded on each of his first two break opportunities in the first set and fended off a pair of break points to even the second set 2-2.
Murray got off to a solid start, opening a 6-2 2-0 lead and there was no indication of the coming meltdown.
“I wish the draw had been different”, said Darcis, whose most significant victory is beating Nadal at Wimbledon in 2013.
One match after that, of course, Serena’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam ended.
After the drama of the last two days, all seemed relatively serene until the third game of the second set, when inexplicably Murray stopped being able to hit the ball in the court. And Rafael Nadal was so at ease in a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory over 100th-ranked Sam Groth that the nine-time French Open champion allowed himself a smile after a dazzling, back-to-the-net, through-the-legs passing shot victor. “It was hard but I’m happy I was able to finish in three sets”.
The No 2 seed spurned three opportunities to claim the break before doing so at the fourth attempt before he won the set against the serve.
Jimmy Connors reached the third round at the French and U.S. Opens in 1991, aged 38.
Back in 2002, when neither was yet 22, the American siblings contested the final at Roland Garros, one of their eight all-in-the-family Grand Slam title matches – and they haven’t played each other at any stage in Paris since.
She next plays 2014 French Open finalist Simona Halep.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori maintained his impressive clay-court form to outclass Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3 6-3 6-3 in their second round match. The eighth seed is one to watch and defeated Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-3 6-1.
“When I’m in a good position, I feel I strike it much better”, said Ivanovic, who won in Paris in 2008. Murray made a combined 10 unforced errors over the last two sets, after having at least that many in each of the first three.
Staring at the worst defeat of his career, the world number two did what he invariably does in such situations and found a way back, eventually winning 6-2 2-6 4-6 6-2 6-3 in three hours and 34 minutes.
Eighth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky, a French Open semifinalist a year ago, advanced to the third round at Roland Garros by beating Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-4.
Also upset-minded on Tuesday were German Julia “Gorgeous” Goerges topping No. 20 Johanna Konta 6-2, 6-3, and German Tatjana Maria outlasting former No. 1 and No. 23 seed Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
“I don’t want to play five sets every round and don’t want to have big dropoffs in matches”.
The Japanese ace surrendered the first break of the match in the opening set, but mixed in a number of change-of-pace shots to find his rhythm and gradually got back into his game.
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It was the second time in three years that the Australian Open women’s champion lost in the first round at Roland Garros – the same thing happened to Li Na in 2014.
