But Murray, 29, used all his experience to seal a 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over the world number 164 from France.
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Next up for Murray is Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who became the oldest man to reach the third round of a grand slam for 25 years when the 37-year-old came through a marathon five-setter against Australian Jordan Thompson.
“It was nice to win quickly today”, said a relaxed Murray, having told French TV on-court that he planned to have “fillet de boeuf, frites maison and salad verte” for dinner. But he fought right to the end and I was glad to win the tie-break.
At the end of a year ago Karlovic finally overhauled Goran Ivanisevic’s all-time career record of 10,237 aces. “At least I get a day’s rest now”.
The quality of his returns was exceptional. Some stylish strokeplay from a focused Andy Murray sees him blaze through the second set as well. Getting down to play balls that low is not easy when you are 6ft 11in tall.
They present different tactical approaches for Murray, who spread the court effectively testing Karlovic laterally and will likely use his angled slice backhand at times to drag Isner forward.
Karlovic hit only 14 aces – not many by his standards – to Murray’s eight, but an equally telling statistic was the 75 per cent of first serves which the Scot put in court, which is more than usual. “Mostly I break myself”. “I tried to stay patient and take care of my own service games”.
“Physically, the average rally length will only be a few shots, maybe three, four shots max”, Murray said. He ended up with more winners, fewer unforced errors and more total points, 138-137.
“I didn’t really have any lapses today which in a match when there is not so much rhythm and even though it probably doesn’t seem like it from watching in the stands, you know every time you go up to serve, there is a little bit extra pressure because he’s such a hard guy to break”. There was only a light breeze and the temperature was a very pleasant 24C.
Two five-set encounters with a qualifier and a wildcard have hinted that the Briton is massively off his game – and he must now without question improve as he takes on no. 27 seed Ivo Karlovic.
Truth is, it was Murray who appeared in need of a jolt of some sort, especially while he was losing 16 points in a row during one stretch. This was just what Murray needed to get his French Open campaign back on course and bolster his confidence for the second week.
After breaking Karlovic in the Croat’s first service game, Murray has capitalized to hold and lead 3-0 in the first set.
There were no breaks in the third but Murray made the ideal start to the tie-break with a dinked backhand pass and never looked in trouble.
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.
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“He played an excellent match”, Murray said of the crowd favorite who flirted with the second Grand Slam victory of his career.
