Break opportunities were becoming rarer and Karlovic saved two of them in the fifth game of the third set, and it moved inexorably on towards a tiebreak. I lost my way on the court today, ” Murray said, for quite a while”. From the opening game, he targeted Karlovic’s ankles, also moving him side to side when able, and the points clicked for him as on a supermarket till. The world No 2 delivered in emphatic fashion, crushing the giant Croatian 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 in an hour and 56 minutes to earn a meeting on Sunday with the victor of today’s later meeting between John Isner and Teymuraz Gabashvili.
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Murray’s opponent, Karlovic, won his first round match-up in straight sets, although his second round, against Australian Jordan Thompson, was a battle for the ages. She was in bed by the time I got back. I felt he was giving me time to play, so I made a decision to just accept the rallies and every once in a while, make a big shot.
“You can’t continue playing matches like that and then expect to win the tournament”, Murray admitted.
Karlovic must have thought the tennis gods were on his case in his first service game when he was foot-faulted – an echo of a similar dust-up when losing to Murray at Wimbledon past year – and Murray was two-love up within seven minutes. “This is why I travel with a physio, to help as much as he can in these situations”.
The clay courts of Roland Garros host the second Grand Slam of the season. “I know it’s a different match, different game style, but I felt a little bit better, which is good”, he continued.
Murray said: “I got off to a quick start and that is important against someone like Ivo”. Indeed the second and third sets started to be more competitive as Karlovic seemed to warm up, with danger for Murray serving from behind and twice serving to stay in the set.
Karlovic, who at 6ft 11in is the tallest player on the main tour, turned 37 in February but still possesses one of the most feared serves in tennis.
“In general I think it’s been a good day”.
American legend Jimmy Connors played at the 1992 US Open at the age of 39 and also reached the third round at the French and US Opens the previous year at 38.
“It was very close, especially in the third set”.
Set 1: Andy Murray wins 6-1!
In the women’s event, Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza defeated French wildcard Myrtille Georges 6-2, 6-0 and next tackles Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer.
That gave him a 5-0 lead and two games later he had the first set in the bag at 6-1.
Ty Ross homered, but San Jose left 10 runners on base in a 3-2 California League loss at Visalia.
The Scot, who could not have met Nadal until the final, told ITV4: ” I’m surprised but I knew he’d been struggling with his wrist.
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Czech Lucie Safarova, finalist past year, beat Swiss Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2, and 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova showed she is still a force by beating Britain’s Heather Watson.
