Andy Murray swerved a monumental upset against home qualifier Mathias Bourgue at the French Open, but his five-set comeback victory only cast further doubt on his title-winning credentials.
Advertisement
Karlovic, meanwhile, has recovered from a recent knee injury to become the oldest man to reach the third round of a Grand Slam tournament since 38-year-old Jimmy Connors at the US Open in 1991.
Bourgue belied his world ranking of 164 to open up a 2-1 lead over the two-time grand slam victor, but Murray quickly shut the door and battled to a 6-2 2-6 4-6 6-2 6-3 win.
Two of Murray’s compatriots bowed out with Kyle Edmund losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to John Isner and Heather Watson going down 6-1, 6-3 to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Murray made the ideal start, winning the first five games, and needed only an hour and 56 minutes to complete a 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7/3) victory.
The Scot’s inconsistent form has been perplexing considering he beat Novak Djokovic in the Italian Open final in his last match on clay.
“He was excellent. He was the one dictating a lot of the points and making me run a lot”, the Briton said of Bourgue, who had never won a Tour-level match prior to arriving at Roland Garros. A lot the matches have been very close, and they certainly haven’t been easy matches for me.
No player in the Open era has won a grand slam having played more than three five-set matches in a single tournament.
“Obviously any match you play, the quicker you get it done, the better, especially in these events when the best of five it can go long”, Murray told the media after reaching the. It was a big struggle, [but] I managed to get the win.
Two matches and harrowing escapes for Andy Murray. I was glad to win the tiebreak and get off the court, ‘ said Murray.
He was 5-0 up within 20 minutes and Karlovic needed to produce his best serving so far to get on the scoreboard, two aces at the start of the sixth game enabling the world No 28 to hold serve for the first time at the third attempt.
“I lost my way on the court today, you know, for quite a while”, Murray, who joined the crowd in applauding Borgue, France’s 16th ranked player, told reporters. “I just try to stay patient and take care of my own service games”. Even the hint of a Karlovic comeback was quickly squashed after Murray had gone 0-30 down when serving at 4-3. “I’ve played these matches many times and I just tried to fight through to the end”.
I have had good success against him in the past and I have always enjoyed playing against serve and volleyers.
Advertisement
While defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka, fifth seed Kei Nishikori, Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza eased into the third round on Wednesday, second seed Murray took the long road again. Murray has lost serve nine times in his 45 service games in his first two rounds. The third set proved tighter but Murray found the difference in the breaker.
