Murray Rises, Safin Flops at French Open
Andy Murray continued his love-hate relationship with clay on Wednesday at the French Open, coming back from 1-5 down in the third to defeat Italian Potito “You Say Potatoe” Starace 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance.
“Momentum makes a huge difference. I made him work hard at the end of the third set,” said Murray, who brought claycourt coach Alex Corretja onto his team to get a better feel for the crushed red brick. “I didn’t make as many mistakes, and just focused on every point. I wasn’t worrying whether it was set point or not for him…Today I started well and let my opponent back into the match, but found a way to win.”
The No. 3-seeded Brit will next meet Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who beat No. 28 seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in four sets.
French wildcard Josselin Ouanna ousted former No. 1 Marat Safin 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 4-6, 3-6, 10-8 in the biggest upset of the day.
Other winners were No. 12 seed Fernando Gonzalez, and No. 7 Gilles Simon cruising past American Robert Kendrick to set up a meeting with No. 30 seed Victor Hanescu, who beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.
Croat Marin Cilic moved into the third round and will next face No. 18 seed Radek Stepanek, who beat French lucky loser Mathieu Montcourt in four sets. Belgian Christophe “The Roach” Rochus completed a rain-delayed 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 win over Fabrice “The Magician” Santoro, while Santoro’s French compatriot Arnaud Clement was more successful, upsetting No. 21 seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
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