Andy Murray’s French Open campaign continued to reflect his up-and-down season but the world No 1 is through to the third round thanks to a typically gritty 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 victory here over Slovakia’s Martin Klizan. Murray’s form dipped at times, especially in the early stages, but there was also evidence that he is digging himself out of the rut into which he had fallen during the current clay-court season.
The format of a Grand Slam tournament, in which the top players are guaranteed not to face seeded opponents in the first two rounds, has given Murray a chance to play his way into form, though he faces a major step up in class in the next round when he faces Juan Martin del Potro.
Kyle Edmund, Murray’s Davis Cup colleague, is also through to the last 32 thanks to an emphatic 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Renzo Olivo, who had beaten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 24 hours earlier. The 22-year-old Briton will now face South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, who beat Nick Kyrgios 5-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2.
Murray came into this tournament out of form and on antibiotics after picking up yet another infection during a year which has seen him beset by physical issues, but the Scot is clearly in better spirits after coming through two hard-fought matches.
Klizan, a left-hander with a ferocious forehand and a good touch, was a potentially dangerous opponent, but Murray recovered from a moderate start to dominate the latter stages. On a day of blazing sunshine and rising temperatures he was still looking strong after more than three and a half hours on court.
“Physically I felt very good today,” Murray said afterwards. “That was a very positive thing for me, to come through a match like that in that heat and feel good, after a lot of the issues I have had this year.”
The temperature was approaching 27C as the two men walked on to Court Suzanne Lenglen in glorious sunshine. With Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic having already played on the second show court earlier in the week, it was the turn of the world No 1 not to enjoy top billing. Nevertheless, many of the players – and Nadal in particular – love playing in this arena, which feels more open than Court Philippe Chatrier.
Murray, however, did not appear in the best of moods. He seemed to spend much of the time between points having grumpy conversations with nobody in particular or complaining in the general direction of his entourage. “This is the flattest I’ve seen you guys for a long time,” he said at one point.
The Scot was also unhappy about “Spidercam” – the broadcast camera which moves on cables above the court – being in his vision when he served. During the first set tie-break he told the umpire that he would sit down and wait for the camera to be moved if it was in his sight lines again.
There were periods when Murray did not serve well, especially in the first set, and in the early stages he was leaving too many of his shots in mid-court, particularly on his second serve returns, which enabled Klizan to step in and dictate the points. Murray subsequently took up a deeper position for his returns, after which he was hitting the ball to a much better length.
Murray dropped serve in the third game, broke back when Klizan served for the first set at 5-4, but then played a poor tie-break. The world No 50 won it with a smash, a Murray double fault having given him set point.
Having made too many errors in the first set, Murray cut most of them out in the second. From 2-2 he broke serve in four of Klizan’s next five service games.
When Murray served out to take the third set he seemed comfortably in control, but Klizan drew first blood in the fourth, breaking in the second game, and had a chance to level the match when he served at 5-3. However, a combination of some brilliant defence by Murray and some wild hitting by Klizan saw the Scot break back.
The set went to another tie-break and at 6-3 Murray converted his second match point with a typically brilliant winner. Klizan chased down a drop shot to hammer a fierce backhand cross-court, but Murray read it and dug out a superb backhand volley to secure the victory.
Del Potro, meanwhile, had appeared in physical difficulty with a thigh problem during his second-round victory over Nicolas Almagro, only for his opponent to retire early in the third set – at one set apiece – because of an injury to his left knee. At the end Almagro fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, upon which Del Potro, showing typical sportsmanship, came over to the Spaniard’s side of the net to console him.
Murray had two memorable battles with Del Potro last summer. He beat the Argentinian in the Olympic final before Del Potro earned revenge in a marathon match in the Davis Cup semi-finals. It was Murray’s last defeat of 2016 as the Scot subsequently won 24 matches in a row to secure the year-end world No 1 ranking.
“In my opinion he’s one of the best players in the world when he's fit and healthy,” Murray said as he looked forward to renewing rivalry with the Argentinian.
“I definitely feel like I'm capable of winning the match. I’m playing way better than I was two weeks ago and today’s match will have done me a lot of good, because physically I pulled up well and felt good. I will gain a lot of confidence from that. I also hit a lot of balls out there today, more than the first-round match. It seems like everyone thinks I didn’t play particularly well today, but there was some good stuff against a tough opponent.”
Edmund, who has not dropped a set in his first two matches, was pleased with his performance against Olivo. “It was a good match today,” Edmund said. “I felt in control of my game. I did what I wanted to do for the most part of the match.”
The world No 49 now has a fine chance of making further progress after Anderson’s victory over Kyrgios, who smashed two rackets after letting the match slip from his control.
After losing the second set with two double faults Kyrgios flung his racket on the ground. He then smashed another six times against a water container when he sat down at the end of a game. The Australian was given a point penalty and never recovered, losing the third and fourth sets in little more than an hour.
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