Murray - Stepanak
Andy Murray comes back to beat Radek Stepanak at Roland Garros
World number 2 Murray completed his fightback from two sets down against Stepanak on Tuesday morning, winning 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.
Andy Murray came back from two sets down against Czech veteran Radek Stepanek to move through to the French Open second round on Tuesday. Scot Murray lost the first two sets on Monday evening, but had fought back to take the third set 6-0 and was leading by a break in the fourth when play was suspended due to darkness.
Murray prevails, a day later
After play resumed on Tuesday morning Murray took the fourth set to take the match into the decider, where the Scottish World Number 2 prevailed, breaking the 37 year old Stepanak at the end to win 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.
Stepanak - hard to play
"He's always been extremely difficult to play," Murray said after a match which lasted three hours 41 minutes.
"He was playing drop shots, hitting the ball very flat, it was very difficult to get into a rhythm. That's credit to him and the way he played.
"Both of us had chances in the fifth set. Thankfully I was able to take mine at the end when he made a couple of mistakes."
Murray in fine form
Second seed Murray came into the tournament on fine clay court form, having reached the final in Madrid, where he lost to Novak Djokovic, before taking revenge on the Serb to to win the Rome Masters the weekend before last. But the man from Dunblane struggled mightily against the wily Stepanek on Court Phillipe Chatrier.
The Scot dropped serve twice in the opening set to fall behind and Stepanek, the oldest player in the draw, called upon his vast experience to carve out a two-set lead.
Murray though showed his resolve and raced through the third set in just 18 minutes as former world number eight Stepanek began to lose his way in the fading light.
The Scot charged into a 4-2 lead in the fourth set before play was halted on Monday, but Murray returned to polish it off and force a decider when play resumed on Tuesday.
Stepanek held firm as Murray failed to convert break points in the first and fifth games of the final set, but the Czech eventually cracked at 5-all with Murray sealing a dramatic comeback victory.
It was Murray's ninth comeback from two sets down at the majors.
Murray, a three-time Roland Garros semi-finalist, will play 164th-ranked French wildcard Mathias Bourgue for a place in the last 32.