TENNIS FRENCH OPEN:ANDY MURRAY again made life unnecessarily difficult for himself, beating Juan Ignacio Chela in an on-off tussle stretched over two days, much of it in half-light, but there are tougher matches ahead in this French Open.
After three and a half hours of tennis and no little angst, he beat the languid and deceptively tough Argentinian 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. There were moments when it could easily have gone the other way, though. He was much relieved at the end. While Murray was struggling out on Court One, his bete noire, Marcos Baghdatis, had his feet up and his mind settled as he contemplated his chances of going further by beating Murray in the next round.
The likeable, inconsistent Cypriot reckons he is back to the form that brought him to prominence in 2006 and is stronger for coming through two years of injury and what he calls “mind problems”. Yesterday, he had the satisfaction of being one of the few players to beat the rain as well as his opponent, Marcel Granollers, in a second round that was interrupted more often than a Jeremy Paxman interviewee. He looked commanding towards the end in finishing off the Spaniard 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 6-2.
Another late winner on a day of repeated stoppages was the Italian Fabio Fognini, who finally put out the Frenchman Gael Monfils when they resumed a match that had scandalously been allowed to linger too long in the gloom of the previous evening. Fognini won 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 9-7 on the show court. Monfils, who had had more than enough chances to win, left in a a huff. There was much admiration for the Italian, whose role in this drama was as wounded victim.
Monfils was not a happy loser.
If nothing else, weather breaks can improve your French. “Match interrompu” may have a linguistic ring to it but Murray had heard quite enough of it by the time he retreated to the locker room for the second time on day five.
He had won Wednesday’s first set easily enough and looked to be coasting after that five-set fight with Richard Gasquet on Monday. When they resumed yesterday, however, Chela proved a persistent foe, lacking firepower with his serve but doing enough with his chipping skills and all-round competence to capitalise on the fourth seed’s inconsistency.
Murray blew a tie-break. Trailing, he netted on both wings to trail 3-1, fought back to 6-4 then hit long. The third set was a mixture. Murray was rarely in the groove, but was winning nearly 80 per cent of his first serves. While the attritional tennis was not pretty, it wore Chela down and Murray took the set 6-3 in 42 minutes.
Success seemed to refresh him. Murray broke early and Chela was holding serve with difficulty, as the light faded. Both men looked desperate to settle the matters quickly.
Murray finally got his serve going again, hitting his eighth ace in the sixth game of the fourth set. Then he let Chela off the hook with a sloppy forehand that went wide and they were back to deuce. It took the most delicate backhand down the same line for him to move to 4-2, before he went on to wrap it up.
If he gets past Baghdatis, there is either John Isner or Tomas Berdych waiting for him.
Life in Paris does not get easier for Murray.
