Murray admits to tough days ahead of clash with Karlovic

First he was involved in a rain delayed match with Radek Stepanek, and in the second round was taken the distance by wild card entry, Mathias Bourgue.

Gasquet and Kyrgios have met at the last two Wimbledons with the Australian saving nine match points in 2014 before losing a controversial rematch a year ago when he was accused of tanking a game.

Andy Murray beat Ivo Karlovic 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Friday to book his place in the last 16 at Roland Garros.

Playing in only her second major tournament, Osaka won the first set but then struggled against the 2014 French Open runner-up from Romania.

Tennis – French Open – Roland Garros – Ivo Karlovic of Croatia v Andy Murray of Britain – Paris, Fra …

The prospect of Karlovic’s monstrous serve testing out Murray’s trademark defence is mouth-watering, but their head-to-head record isn’t overly competitive.

It’s the Scot all the way down!

Murray’s command of the situation continued in the second set, a lovely drop shot when serving at 2-1 up demonstrating this.

PARIS (AP) – As if ordering room service, Andy Murray’s latest unheralded French Open tormenter requested that a can of Coke and a Mars bar be brought to him right there on Court Philippe Chatrier for sustenance during their five-setter.

Murray is on a roll!

Karlovic is starting to enjoy a lot more success with his serve, and a belting ace followed by two errant returns sees him race into a 40-0 lead.

Eighth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic had few problems with Adrian Mannarino of France, winning 6-1, 7-6 (7/0), 6-1.

After such a fraught and exhausting start to the tournament, Murray was planning an easy day with the family yesterday. While 6ft 10in Karlovic failed to even get a break point on the Murray serve, the No. 27 seed sent down 14 aces with his serve sometimes unplayable deliveries and won 77 per cent of points on his first serve.

Murray could only manage 12 points in the second set.

Speaking on court, Murray admitted to being slightly chipper after avoiding another marathon encounter. Now Murray serves for the set.

Karlovic’s height did not stop Murray using the lob from time to time, though not as frequently as he did so memorably when beating the Croatian at Wimbledon last summer.

Murray had spent more than seven hours on court in the first two rounds, but he showed no ill effects as he began superbly against Karlovic.

The 29-year-old continued his form into the second set, breaking early and seeing off some resistance from Karlovic to claim it 6-4. He has experienced people in his team to help him put his body back together again in time for today’s match with Ivo Karlovic and now that he is a proud father, he has a four month old baby daughter, Sophia, to distract him and help him clear his head.

Murray holds his first service game! “Plays a lot of tiebreaks because he’s so tough to break”. That said, Karlovic’s first victory here – against Albert Montanes – was in straight sets, although he was taken to his limits by Australia’s John Thompson.