Murray wins at French Open
He withstands back spasms to advance in four sets. Isner loses marathon match.
PARIS — Grimacing in pain with almost every step, Andy Murray nearly had to call it quits because of a back spasm at the French Open on Thursday.
Instead, the fourth-seeded Brit rebounded from an awful first set to beat Jarkko Nieminen, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, and reach the third round.
“I was a few points probably from stopping,” Murray said. “I just didn’t really want to stop the match. Then at the end of the second set I started standing up at the change of ends, and my back started to loosen up a little bit.”
A few hours later on the same court, 10th-seeded John Isner of the United States produced yet another marathon match but was on the losing end this time.
Isner, who won the longest match in history two years ago at Wimbledon, lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16. The match lasted 5 hours 41 minutes — the second-longest by time in French Open history. The record is 6:33. The last set took 2:28. “I never felt comfortable. It’s been like that since I’ve been in Europe, really,” Isner said. “I don’t know what it was. I just didn’t play the right way.”
Isner beat Nicolas Mahut, 70-68, in the fifth set at Wimbledon in 2010.
Because of the time, Maria Sharapova’s secondround match was postponed until Friday.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal also made it to the third round, defeating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0, and improving his record at Roland Garros to 47-1.
The second-seeded Spaniard has won the French Open six times, and one more will break the record he shares with Bjorn Borg.
Murray could barely walk straight when the first match of the day started on Court Philippe Chatrier, gingerly trotting around the red clay with the equivalent of a big target on his back. Nieminen took advantage, at the beginning.
But after losing the first four games, Murray called for a trainer. He then broke back to 4-1, and needed more treatment during the changeover.
It was then that he started to consider retiring from the match.
“It was around that period, end of the first set, and then when I played a couple more games,” Murray said. “Then I was thinking whether to keep playing or not. “I’m happy I did.” No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France and No. 6 David Ferrer of Spain also advanced, and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova reached the third round by beating Urszula Radwanska of Poland, 6-1, 6-3.