Murray fights through to 3rd round

Andy Murray won through to the third round of the French open at Roland Garros yesterday, beating the Italian outsider Potito Starace, but he was made to work for every point during the 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 encounter. Starace is ranked outside the Top 100, but on his favourite surface he threatened to pull off a major shock against the young Scot, taking 11 games out of 13 during the second and third sets and holding a 5-1 lead in the third before Murray regrouped.

It's testament to Murray's powers of recovery that after completely and utterly losing his rhythm, he pulled himself back into the game, winning six games on the bounce to take the penultimate set then battling through the fourth. Even with Murray performing in a stop-start fashion, he had too much for Starace, who paid ample compliment to the Scot after the game, saying: "Apart from Nadal I think he could beat anybody. After all he is No 3 in the world."

Having been  granted a relatively favourable seeding this year, with all the Spanish clay court experts in the other half of the draw, Murray will be happy to have time to regroup before his next challenge, Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic on Friday. He will be happy knowing that this is the type of match that he was losing last year, and remains focused on his primary goal.

"My aim is to make the second week and I need just one more win to do that. Then maybe I can assess my goals and look to go deep into the tournament," said Murray. "I knew that it was going to be a difficult match. I had to play well to come through."

He also is aware of the desire of the French crowd to have a favourite who plays the 'right' way. "People aren't going to come to watch if they don't think they're going to enjoy it. There are a lot of ways you can entertain. There's not just one way of doing it but people definitely come to be entertained."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Steve Bierley, the Guardian: "For a set and half it seemed as if Andy ­Murray might be slip-sliding his way out of the French Open. Movement is the key to his game and on clay those certainties of footing and balance, ­second nature on hard courts or grass, are partly missing. This breeds uncertainty in his mind and uncertainty leads to loss of focus. But he pulled himself out of the mire against Italy's Potito Starace and on Friday will attempt to reach the last 16 at Roland Garros for the first time, against Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic."

Mark Hodgkinson, Daily Telegraph: "The most spectacular moment of Andy Murray’s second-round win at Roland Garros came when he attempted to chase down one of Potito Starace’s devilishly good drop-shots, lost his footing and ended up inadvertently performing a forward-roll across Court Philippe Chatrier. A giant red smear of clay appeared on the back of his black shirt. There was also a stage when it appeared as though the red clay was going to be smeared over Murray’s French Open ambitions, as he was twice a point away from going two sets to one down." ·