By Chris Oddo | Tuesday May 30, 2017
Andy Murray defeated Andrey Kuznetsov in four sets to book a second round clash with Martin Klizan on Tuesday in Paris.
Photo Source: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Stefan Edberg is the only top seed to have lost in the first round at Roland Garros (1990) and Andy Murray is glad that the Swede’s obscure ignominy remains. The Scotsman took care of business today on Court Philippe Chatrier, defeating Russian’s Andrey Kuznetsov, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.
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In doing so Murray avoids the fate suffered by Angelique Kerber on Sunday. The German became the first top-seeded woman to ever lose in the first round when she fell in straight sets to Ekaterina Makarova.
Murray had to work for his supper on Tuesday. Kuznetsov snagged the second set with some strong play that enabled him to win four games in a row at one point, but Murray’s convincing reply was to win 12 of the final 14 games to book his spot in the second round.
"It was quite windy today. I started to feel a little bit better as the match went on but I expected a tough match because he's played well during the clay-court season," Murray said.
The World No.1 improves to 5-4 on clay this season. Last year’s Roland Garros runner-up has had a rough go of things, primarily due to the elbow injury that forced him to the sidelines after Indian Wells in March. He returned to Monte-Carlo in better health, but the rust has been hard to shake.
He may have done some crucial rust-shaking during the final two sets against Kuznetsov. And he puts himself in good stead ahead of his second-round clash with Martin Klizan of Slovakia. Klizan had to go five sets to defeat French wild card Laurent Lokoli on Tuesday.
Murray defeated Klizan in three sets in their only previous meeting last year in Vienna.
Murray will have to be a little better on serve to make a deep run in Paris. He faced seven break points against Kuznetsov, and was broken three times in the second set. He won only 72 percent of his first-serve points with a 58 percent first-serve percentage. The Scotsman was better with his second-serve. He won 22 of 41 points (54 percent) behind it.
Murray picked up his game nicely in the final two sets however—he did not face a break point in sets three and four.