Murray’s worry as exhausted Brit limps into French Open third round after labouring against another unheralded opponent
Exhausted Andy Murray admits he needs to slash his game time or risk any chance of winning the French Open after he was taken to a gruelling five-setter by a second consecutive unfancied opponent.
World No2 Murray, who arrived in Paris with high hopes of a best Roland Garros yet, was blown away at times by Mathias Bourgue, a 22-year-old wildcard who had never before taken on a top-50 player.
The Scot suffered a spectacular mid-match collapse in which he lost eight games in a row and went from a set up to two sets down, before rallying against a wilting Bourgue to prevail 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
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Murray’s struggled followed a similarly laboured win over 37-year-old Radek Stepanek, the oldest man in the men’s draw, which overran on Monday and had to be completed on Tuesday.
That workload and lack of rest has undermined pre-tournament confidence boosted by a first win on clay over world No1 Novak Djokovic and the Rome Masters title, and Murray admits he is concerned.
"It’s been a tough few days and I’m going to have to recover extremely well if I am to go far in this tournament. You can’t play too many matches like this,” he said.
“He was excellent. He was the one dictating a lot of the points, making me run a lot and fighting right to the end. He’s going to have a fantastic future for sure.
“I was thinking ‘what happened?’. He started playing unbelievable and I was finding it hard to win points, not games. I’ve played these matches many times and I just tried to fight through to the end.”
Consolation of sorts for Murray is that he has a full day’s rest at last before meeting another veteran, Ivo Karlovic, whose second-round match was the longest in the tournament so far, on Friday.
Brits tumble but top seeds march on
Compatriots Kyle Edmund and Heather Watson both lost in straight sets, to John Isner and Svetlana Kuznetsova. The other remaining Briton in the singles draws, Aljaz Bedene, plays on Thursday.
Men’s champion Stan Wawrinka and fifth seed Kei Nishikori eased into round three, as did women’s second seed Agnieszka Radwanska and fourth seed Garbine Muguruza.