Andy Murray Rallies Back To Beat Radek Stepanek At French Open

Andy Murray was forced to play very hard to defeat Czech veteran Radek Stepanek and win the first-round match of Roland Garros in five sets in Paris on Monday.

Andy Murray Rallies To Beat Radek Stepanek At French Open

The 29-year-old first-ranked Brit found himself struggling and lost the first two sets 3-6, 3-6. However, he bounced back to win the next two sets 6-0, 6-2.

In the fifth set, Stepanek, 37, stepped up his serve-volley game to mitigate the threat of Murray’s powerful baseline game, and took a 4-3 lead in the decider. However, the Brit finished Stepanek off 7-5 in the final set to clinch the victory.

Play was briefly suspended during Monday night’s first-round men’s matchup because of bad light.

Murray will now move on to the second round to face French wildcard Mathias Bourgue, who is ranked 164 in the world. Murray also praised Stepanek following his victory, saying: “He had an extremely bad injury last year and was out for eight or nine months. Still at 37 years old to be coming out and fighting like that and playing that way is unbelievable.” The Brit then continued, “I wasn’t able to dictate many points and I couldn’t find any rhythm and that’s credit to how he played. I fought extremely hard and thankfully I will be back to play again tomorrow.”

The last time Murray lost in the first round of a Grand Slam was in 2008.

Another Brit, Aljaz Bedene, also won in the first round, beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 earlier on Tuesday. South African-born Brit Kyle Edmund, 21, defeated Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets.

On the women’s side fellow Brit Heather Watson, 24, beat out another youngster, 23-year-old American Nicole Gibbs, 5-7 6-2 6-2 on Monday.  

Johanna Konta and Laura Robson will both play their first-round matches later on Tuesday.

PHOTO: ROME, ITALY – MAY 13: Andy Murray of Great Britain in action against David Goffin of Belguim during day six of the The Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2016 on May 13, 2016 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)