This year’s Rome Masters 1000 champion and three-time Roland Garros semifinalist Andy Murray completed his comeback from two sets down to battle past Radek Stepanek on Court Philippe Chatrier in five hard-fought sets 3-6 3-6 6-0 6-3 7-5 in the first round of Roland Garros.
Thirty-seven year-old Stepanek took a two sets to love lead but Murray scored a bagel win in the third set and took a 4-2 lead before the match was suspended due to darkness. Murray fended off three break points in the 8th game but held his serve before drawing level with a break of serve to force the match to the fifth set.
Stepanek saved break points in the first and fifth games of the fifth set and rallied to two deuces in the 10th game. Murray was two points from losing the match when he was serving at 4-5 but held his serve. The dramatic fifth set went on serve until the 11th game when Murray earned two break points as Stepanek was serving at 5-5. The Scotsman double faulted on his first match point but converted his second chance when Stepanek hit his forehand into the net.
“Radek had an extremely bad injury last year and still at 37 coming out and fighting like that, it’s unbelievable. He is always been extremely difficult to play. I wasn’t able to dictate many of the points. I wasn’t in a great rhythm, and that’s credit to him and the way that he played. I fought extremely hard today and I will get a chance to play again tomorrow”, said Murray
Murray closed out the match on his second match point when Stepanek hit his forehand wide. Murray sets up a second round match against Mathias Bourgue.
Murray has won 21 of his 28 matches when he was pushed to five sets, including nine of his matches. He managed to come back from two sets down in nine Grand Slam matches.