Murray survives scare as Federer progresses

Andy Murray admits he all but gave up on the third set of his third-round victory over Marcos Baghdatis after recovering to reach week two at Roland Garros for the second successive year.

PARIS // Andy Murray last night admitted he all but gave up on the third set of his third-round victory over Marcos Baghdatis after recovering to reach week two at Roland Garros for the second successive year. Murray was two sets up before suffering a monumental mid-match slump which saw him lose seven straight games. He fought back to win 6-2 6-3 0-6 6-2 in two hours and 33 minutes and set up a clash with Tomas Berdych.

"I didn't play a very good set - that was it," he said. "That's all that happened. I didn't play well, made mistakes." Meanwhile, Roger Federer was pleased with his form but Rafael Nadal felt there was more improvement to come from himself as both secured straightforward victories yesterday. Federer, the defending champion, produced a near-identical performance to his opening two wins to ease past Julian Reister in the third round. He won 6-4 6-0 6-4 in just one hour and 33 minutes, setting up a last-16 clash with Stanislas Wawrinka or Fabio Fognini.

Federer said: "With my own form, I'm very happy. I'm ready to mix up my game playing aggressive. I'm not sure today if I had to face break points. I'm getting very few breaks, and that's obviously always a good thing looking ahead." Nadal made short work of Horacio Zeballas in a second-round match, winning 6-2 6-2 6-3 to set up an intriguing third-round meeting with Lleyton Hewitt tomorrow. "I improved a little bit, I played a little bit better. But sure, not perfect," said Nadal, who had a brief wobble in the third set. "It's always important to play a little bit better every day."

Hewitt was taken to five sets by Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan before winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1. Despite winning at a canter in just 51 minutes against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Serena Williams insisted there was plenty she could learn from her match. "I can learn a lot," she said. "Like, what am I doing today? Why aren't all my matches like this? How can I get them to all be like that?" * Agencies