Murray escapes huge scare from wildcard Bourgue

Britain's Andy Murray survived a monumental second-round upset at the French Open on Wednesday as he battled back to beat 164th-ranked local wildcard Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

While defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka, fifth seed Kei Nishikori, Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza, eased into the third round on Wednesday, second seed Murray took the long road again.

Second seed Murray, who recovered from two sets down to defeat Radek Stepanek in round one, looked poised for a routine victory after sweeping to the opening set against Bourgue.

But the Frenchman stunned the world number two by claiming the next two sets on Court Philippe Chatrier to leave Murray facing his earliest Grand Slam exit since 2008.

However, the two-time major champion responded in the fourth to force a decider, and Murray completed a second straight nervy five-set win to take his place in the last 32.

"I had 6-2, 2-0 and he started playing unbelievable and I started to find it hard to win points, not just games," said Murray, who struggled but retained his record of having never lost to player outside the top 100 at a Grand Slam.

"He was excellent. He was the one dictating a lot of the points and making me run a lot," the Briton said of Bourgue, who had never won a Tour-level match prior to arriving at Roland Garros.

"I just tried to fight through until the end.

"I need to go and rest, it's been a tough few days. To go far in the tournament you can't play too many matches like this."

There were few signs of imminent danger for Murray when he broke Bourgue twice to grab the opening set, and the Scot then forged 2-0 ahead in the second.

But few could have predicted what lay ahead, as Bourgue, who had never previously even faced a player ranked inside the top 50, seized the next six games - winning at one stage 16 straight points - to leave Murray bewildered.

Roared on by a vocal home crowd on the main showcourt, Bourgue continued to dominate with a fourth consecutive break of Murray's serve to open the third set.

Murray finally snapped a run of eight games in a row for the Frenchman, but Bourgue displayed remarkable composure to make the early break stick and move within one set of a stunning upset.  

The world number two refused to wilt though and secured a crucial break at 2-1 in the fourth to send the contest into a fifth set.

And Murray completed another dramatic five-set win, but not before needing two attempts to serve it out in the decider.

Murray, a three-time Roland Garros semi-finalist, goes on to play veteran big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic for a spot in the last 16.

Murray's opponent in the third round, Ivo Karlovic, was involved in the day's other compelling drama.

The big-serving Croatian, also 37, beat Australian wildcard Jordan Thompson 6-7(2) 6-3 7-6(3) 6-7(4) 12-10 in the longest match of the tournament so far to become the oldest man to reach the third round of a slam since Jimmy Connors in 1991.

"It's the only time when being old is okay," 27th seed Karlovic, who has boomed down 72 aces in two rounds, said of his milestone victory.

Quite what he and Murray will cook up on Friday is anyone's guess, but expect the unexpected.

Like Murray, third seed Wawrinka suffered a first-round fright in a five-setter against Lukas Rosol.

He was still not at his best on Wednesday against Japan's Taro Daniel, but having saved two set points in the opening tiebreak he won 7-6(7) 6-3 6-4.

"If you look at the first two matches, for sure I'm not playing my best tennis, but I know I have my best tennis in me," the 31-year-old, who faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy next, said.

Nishikori's progress has been impressive so far and he was too good for Russian Andrey Kuznetsov, winning 6-3 6-3 6-3.

After a flurry of falling seeds in the women's first round, the top names flourished as the sun finally appeared in Paris.

Romania's Halep, runner-up to Maria Sharapova in 2014, took a while to tame Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas to win 7-6(5) 6-2.

Fourth seed Muguruza, bidding to become the first Spanish woman to win the title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1998, thrashed France's Myrtille Georges 6-2 6-0.

Czech Lucie Safarova, finalist last year, beat Swiss Viktorija Golubic 6-2 6-2, and 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova showed she is still a force by beating Britain's Heather Watson.   

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.