Murray fighting for French Open survival after 37-year-old qualifier pushes him to brink
Britain's Andy Murray faces a battle to avoid a shock first-round elimination at the French Open when his match against qualifier Radek Stepanek resumes on Tuesday.
Second seed Murray lost the first two sets to the 37-year-old Czech but fought back from the brink of an embarrassing exit to trail 6-3, 6-3, 0-6, 2-4 when bad light stopped play on Monday evening.
Roland Garros is the only grand slam at which Murray has failed to reach the final, though his marked improvement on clay in the last 18 months gave rise to hopes of a serious challenge this year.
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He beat world No1 Novak Djokovic on the surface for the first time on his way to winning the Rome Masters earlier this month – his third title on clay since the start of 2015.
The Scot will have to hit the ground running this morning in Paris on Tuesday, however, or risk crashing out of a major tournament in the opening round for the first time since 2008.
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka also suffered a scare, going two sets down before finally seeing off Czech Lukas Rosol 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Murray’s fellow Briton and Davis Cup team-mate Kyle Edmund had no such difficulties as he reached round two for the second successive year with a four-set win over qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili.
The South Africa-born 21-year-old, who won the junior title at Roland Garros three years ago, won 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-1 to set up a clash with either John Ismer or John Millman.
Women’s British No2 Heather Watson made light work of American Nicole Gibbs when their rain-hit match, which started on Sunday, resumed 24 hours later.
Watson was a break down in the deciding set but won five games in a row to reach the second round of Roland Garros for the fifth consecutive year, where she will meet 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Victory also secured Watson’s place in Team GB for this summer’s Rio Olympics, a factor she had admitted has been affecting her performance.
Naomi Broady lost in three sets to Coco Vandeweghe but three other Britons – Johanna Konta, Laura Robson and Aljaz Bedene – are set to play on Tuesday.