“I know I started that match quite well, unlike the two matches today and two days ago”.
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“I managed to win the match”.
Croatian 37-year-old Ivo Karlovic became the oldest man since Jimmy Connors in 1991 to reach the French Open third round.
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.
“You can’t play too many matches like this if you want to go far in this tournament”.
He dismissed suggestions additional pressure on Murray this year was playing on his mind – “he expects to win every year, not just this year” – but accepted the Rome performance against Djokovic in particular may have had an impact.
Dispatching of Karlovic 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7-3) in just under two hours affords the Briton more time for recovery ahead of his next outing on Sunday.
Most notable were the break points which the third-seeded Swiss player failed to convert against a player 89 spots below him in the rankings. The Croat levelled to deuce but a foot fault threw the big man, he double faulted and Murray broke with a lob onto the baseline.
Bizarrely, the encounter with Karlovic could provide welcome relief for Murray. Comfortable on his own serve Murray pulled away again and he was soon two sets up.
Alive, yes, but not thriving: talk of Murray being joint-second favourite alongside Rafa Nadal now appears to have been hugely optimistic.
If ever he needed a quick break in the first week of a major championship it is now. The challenge for Murray is finding a way to break against the towering Karlovic, knowing that one poor service game on his part could determine the set.
Murray dug deep to survive an onslaught in his opening service game in the fourth set as the impossible started to look probable, before steadying to break twice and force a decider.
Murray had spent more than seven hours on court in the first two rounds, but he showed no ill effects as he began superbly against Karlovic.
The speed and decisiveness of the win will no doubt feel all the sweeter for the style of the win.
“Tired”, Murray said, before launching into a monologue about momentum and his positive thoughts on how he finished the match on Wednesday. “I hope to win the next one a little bit faster”, Murray said. “He made me run a lot, he was a huge challenge and played very aggressively”. I spoke about that the other day, if it was possible to get this one done quickly, it gives me a chance to recover from the first few days, which is good.
The eighth-seeded Raonic will face Slovakia’s Andrej Martin in the third round.
Murray will face either big serving American 15th seed John Isner or Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili next.
Spanish fourth seed Garbine Muguruza routed France’s Myrtille Georges 6-2, 6-0, while number six Simona Halep beat Zarina Diyas 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
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Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland serves the ball to Taro Daniel of Japan at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris Wednesday.
