Andy Murray staged a sensational fightback to come from two sets and a break down to beat Richard Gasquet in the first round of the French Open last night. The fourth seed looked to be down and out against his French opponent, but fought back to win 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, in a match that lasted more than four hours.
It was only the second time that the Briton had come from two sets down at a grand slam, the previous occasion was also against Gasquet, coming at Wimbledon in 2008. Gasquet, the former world No 7 who has fallen to 68th in the rankings after missing much of last year serving a drugs ban for which he was later cleared, had taken a tight first set by breaking in the 10th game. The second set proved to be equally close, with both players squandering break points, as it went with serve to a tie-break. There, Gasquet held his nerve to take it and go two sets to love up as Murray put a backhand into the net.
It looked to be all over for Murray, who reached the quarter-finals in Paris 12 months ago, when Gasquet broke to go 3-2 up in the third set. Murray lost his temper and started to complain to the umpire at the changeover, accusing his opponent of disrupting his focus. "Every single time I've got to serve in this match, except once, he stopped me," Murray said after the match, referring to Gasquet's refusal to play while spectators were still moving in the stands. "It's amazing."
But Murray broke back immediately, and after the pair exchanged breaks, he broke decisively in the tenth game to breathe new life into his challenge. The fourth set proved to be one-way traffic as Murray broke in the fourth and eighth games to take it to a decider. Gasquet had already called for the trainer at the end of the third set, and he again received medical attention before the start of the final set. Despite being visibly exhausted he had the first opportunity to break serve in the final set in the third game, but was unable to take it as he put a backhand long.
That miss proved costly as Murray rattled through the next four games to win and set up a match with Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the second round. Meanwhile in yesterday's other action, Roger Federer labelled his opening round win as the perfect start to his French Open title defence. The world No 1 was rarely troubled in a 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory against the Australian Peter Luczak on Court Philippe Chatrier that sets up a second-round match with Colombia's Alejandro Falla.
"It's always important coming back as defending champion, trying to get off to a good start," he said. "It was like a perfect match to get off the French Open campaign." Federer bided his time in the first set and did not really push Luczak until the 10th game. The top seed showed his annoyance when Luczak's serve was called in on his first set point but he did not have long to wait and an untimely double fault from his opponent handed Federer the advantage. From then on he never looked back and he added: "I served well. I never really got a chance on my serve, so I was pretty relaxed."
Novak Djokovic survived a second-set wobble to book his place in the second round with a four-set victory over Evgeny Korolev. The third seed and former Australian Open champion won 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Kei Nishikori. Djokovic looked like steamrollering his opponent after racing to a set and a break lead. But the Serb lost six of the next seven games as Korolev upped his game.The same could not be said in the third set as Djokovic raced to a 5-0 lead before comfortably moving 2-1 ahead in sets. The 23-year-old Serbian did not hang around in the fourth either, instantly breaking his opponent as he cruised through. Feliciano Lopez became the second men's seed to exit the competition after he was beaten by Julian Reister of Germany.
The Spanish 27th seed went down 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 to his opponent, who is ranked 166th in the world. Slovakia's Lukas Lacko beat the American qualifier Michael Yani 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 12-10, to tie the record for the most games in a match at Roland Garros since tie-breakers were introduced in 1973. The match, which resumed yesterday at 8-8 in the fifth set after being suspended overnight because of darkness, had 71 games. Three other men's singles matches at Roland Garros also lasted that length. The overall record is the 83 games played in a match in 1957. * Compiled by Graham Caygill, with agencies
Court Philippe Chatrier - 1pm onwards Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) v 22 Justine Henin (Belgium) 6 Andy Roddick (USA) v Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) Maria Elena Camerin (Italy) v 13 Marion Bartoli (France) 28 Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) v Jeremy Chardy (France) Court Suzanne Lenglen - 1pm 7 Fernando Verdasco (Spain) v Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 9 Dinara Safina (Russia) v Kimiko Date Krumm (Japan) Gianni Mina (France) v 2 Rafael Nadal (Spain) 12 Maria Sharapova (Russia) v Ksenia Pervak (Russia)
