Brit comes back from two sets to one to move into third round
For the second time in as many matches, Andy Murray fought off another upset bid at Roland Garros on Wednesday and escaped to keep his Grand Slam title hopes alive in Paris. The second seed prevailed in another five-set battle, this time outlasting French wild card Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in three hours and 34 minutes on Philippe-Chatrier Court.
“He was excellent,” said Murray in his on-court interview with Fabrice Santoro. “He was the one dictating a lot of the points, making me run a lot right to the end, even when I had a big lead in the fifth set. He’s going to have a fantastic future for sure.
“[At the end of the third set] I was thinking, ‘What happened?’ I had a 6-2, 2-0 lead, and then he started playing unbelievable and I was finding it hard to win points, not so much just games. It was a very big turnaround and I’ve played these matches many times. Sometimes your opponent can lose a little bit of concentration, maybe play a bad game here or there. I just tried to fight through to the end.”
The Scot looked to be in a deep rut against Bourgue, who was playing in his second Grand Slam match in front of a boisterous French crowd. The World No. 2 fell behind two sets to one, and the 22 year old was swelling with confidence, mixing in drop shots that lured Murray to the net and powerful forehands that moved the second seed from side to side along the baseline.
“He played very good… When he was dictating the points with his forehand he was very good, moving the ball around well,” Murray said. “And he had good touch, a lot of good drop shots.”
But Bourgue, No. 164 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had never played a fourth set or fifth set on tour. Murray, on the other hand, had come back from two sets down as recently as Tuesday against Radek Stepanek, marking the ninth time in his career that he’s completed the feat. And the 29 year old used all of that late-match expertise to grab momentum from the Frenchman.
Murray stepped into the court more often and earned two service breaks in the fourth as Bourgue’s game also cooled off. In the fifth, Bourgue erased a break point in his first service game but Murray capitalised on his second opportunity to go up 3-1. The World No. 2 failed to serve out the match during his first attempt but broke Bourgue to convert his first match point and move into the third round.
“I lost my way on the court today for quite a while. So to turn it around and find a way to win after a period where I was struggling to win points at one stage, I was losing a lot of games at love. It felt like every time the ball was in the middle of the court he was hitting winners. I couldn’t see where his shots were going,” Murray said. “I was trying to find a way. It wasn’t like I was not there mentally, but I just couldn’t find the court. I was missing balls.”
Murray will face 27th seed Ivo Karlovic, who also needed five sets to advance. The big-serving Croat beat Australian Jordan Thompson 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 12-10. Karlovic, 37, is the oldest man to reach the third round at a Grand Slam since 39-year-old Jimmy Connors at the 1991 US Open. “It’s the only time when being old is okay,” Karlovic said, smiling. “So, yeah, I like.”
It looked as if Murray would stride into the third round earlier on Wednesday. He broke Bourgue at 2-1 and again at 5-2 to win the first set in 40 minutes.
Murray’s level of play dipped, though, early in the second. He was up 2-0 but then let Bourgue reel off the next six games, including three service breaks, to take the second set. Bourgue won 16 points in a row from 30-all, 3-2 in the second set to 30-0 in the first game of the third set.
Murray’s rough stretch continued in the third. He lost his opening service game, and Bourgue seized the momentum, capturing the third with a backhand winner and coming within a set of the biggest win of his career.
“I couldn’t believe it myself. I was very happy. I was very proud. I knew I was on top of things at that point,” Bourgue said of his two-sets-to-one advantage. “Then he increased his game. I started to serve less well, and then he just had that positive momentum that went on and on. It’s a pity. It’s a pity I lost the match.”
The Frenchman can’t be disappointed with his effort. Before Wednesday, he had played exactly one Grand Slam match, his first-round win at Roland Garros on Monday. The number of Grand Slam matches Murray had played: 198.
