HE’S BOURGUE, NOT BORG!
Misfiring Murray is taken to five sets by unknown wildcard
Andy Murray was playing inside a packed, sometimes frenzied stadium but there were times yesterday when you felt like sending out a search party for him.
as the world no 2 admitted after a narrow escape into the French Open third round: ‘I lost my way on the court for quite a while.’
The question now is how heavy a price he will pay for the seven-anda-quarter hours he has spent in clay-court combat already, against two players with an aggregate ranking of 293.
nobody has won this tournament when playing more than three five-set matches. He has already had two — the second one this extraordinary 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over the unknown French wildcard Mathias Bourgue.
Murray’s next opponent is 6ft 11in Croatian Ivo Karlovic. While the exchanges will not be long, he is mentally taxing to face because break-point opportunities tend to be so scarce against his enormous serve.
Where Murray’s mind will be is anybody’s guess after he tuned in and out of yesterday’s match like a dodgy medium-wave radio signal, almost dropping off the dial towards the end of the second set when he lost 16 points on the run.
as his commentating former coach amelie Mauresmo said on French television, he became ‘passive’ to a fault in allowing the world no 164 to find inspiration and play to a remarkable level.
Blowing his top at his support team up in the stands was not an issue for Murray this time and for a long period you wished he might show more frustration at what was happening.
It was notable he started playing much better when he became more animated in the fourth set and he responded admirably to the davis Cup-type atmosphere that broke out as the Frenchman began to play with a glorious flourish.
For a while it felt the whole of roland Garros was against Murray — with the exception of the watching Hugh Grant, you assume, one of the few Brits inside the Court Philippe Chatrier.
as usually happens, Murray got the job done. But Bourgue played incredibly well for a long spell and for Murray there may have been an emotional hangover from the radek Stepanek fifth-set shootout.
Murray said: ‘It was a pretty stressful couple of days. Coming back the next day and playing, it’s not easy.
‘It obviously doesn’t happen that often where you’re struggling just to win points. The court did speed up a lot. It was much quicker for a period when the sun was out, which it hasn’t been at all pretty much since we have been here.
‘I was missing a lot of balls long, so during that period I lost my way.’
Only at the 2005 US Open — before he adopted his arduous training regime — has he begun a Grand Slam with two five-setters and he ended up vomiting on court in one of those.
‘The positive is I play Karlovic in the next round and physically the rally length will be short,’ said Murray. ‘at least I get a day’s rest now. But you can’t continue playing matches like that and then expect to win the tournament.’
you would never have expected such a start when Murray’s name was plucked out of the draw to face a qualifier, then a wildcard — especially after he beat novak djokovic at the Italian Open.
It may be that this has added to the subconscious pressure, and Murray has certainly not enjoyed the debate about whether his repartee with his support box contributed to Mauresmo’s exit.
as in Madrid and rome, he was perfectly calm in the routine first set but positively meek when Bourgue surged in the second and third. despite having never faced a top-50 player before, he was not intimidated and his execution of the dropshot was phenomenal.
Murray conceded eight straight games from 2-0 up in the second and lost any sense of creativity. usually he works new opponents out quickly, but not this time.
at least he never came close to elimination like he did against Stepanek. Bourgue, who last week lost in the qualifying rounds of the nice Open, had not played more than three sets previously and it began to show.
Once Murray broke for 3-1 when his opponent finally missed a few balls, the outcome was in little doubt. But this was no way to scare djokovic or rafael nadal, who now look much better bets for the title than Murray.
Kyle Edmund was disappointed not to have pushed huge-serving John Isner to any tiebreaks as he went out 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
The 21-year-old from yorkshire had three break points at 3-3 in the second set, but was unable to capitalise and was broken himself once in each of the three sets.
He has done well enough on the clay this season, winning the rome Challenger. Edmund will be back on the surface as soon as his run at Wimbledon ends because he is sure to fill one of the singles berths when Great Britain face Serbia immediately after.
Heather Watson fell in the second round of the French Open for the fifth time in her career, comprehensively outplayed by 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to lose 6-1, 6-3. after competing in the doubles with american nicole Gibbs, she will head back for the grass-court season.
Murray aside, aljaz Bedene is the only Brit left in the singles draw and he plays Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta this morning.
Playing like this is no way to scare Nadal or Djokovic