Murray must wait as light halts progress
ANDY MURRAY cut a frustrated figure after rain and bad light halted his French Open progress at Roland Garros last night.
The British No1 was leading Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 3-3 when play was suspended at 9.30pm local time.
Frequent showers meant that the players did not even start their second round showdown until gone 8pm, but once they did get on the court, the fourth seed soon exerted his class.
Murray has won each of their last five encounters without dropping a set and that looked set to continue as the Scot outfoxed Chela with a dominant display from the baseline, using his renouned drop shot to full effect.
Breaks of serve the third and fifth games eventually handed him the set.
Murray then broke again in the fifth game of the second set, but as the light faded, Chela surprisingly restored parity before the umpire stepped in to end the day’s play.
Waiting for the winner in round three is defending champion and No1 seed Roger Federer, who overcame a slow start and two breaks for rain to beat Columbia’s Alejandro Falla in straight sets.
Falla served for the first set at 6-5 before Federer found his game to come through 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-4 and set up a third round clash with Julian Reister.
Elsewhere, fifth seed Robin Soderling was on court just one hour and 11 minutes in thrashing Taylor Dent 6-0, 6-1, 6-1, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eased past fellow Frenchman Josselin Ouanna 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.
Defending women’s champion Svetlana Kuznetsova survived a huge scare before coming back to beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic. The Russian sixth seed was forced to save four match points before clinching a 4-6, 7-5,6-4 victory.
Earlier, second seed Venus Williams beat Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2 6-4.