Andy Murray secured a place in the second round of the 2017 French Open with a tough 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over unseeded Andrey Kuznetsov at Roland Garros on Tuesday. It was a battling performance from the Briton who needed just over two and a half hours to see off the Russian.
Murray has been mired in a deep slump, compiling a mediocre 17-7 record this year. Things are looking up, though, for the world no. 1 who suffered an embarrassing first-round exit at the Italian Open last week. Murray’s performance against Kuznetsov, particularly in the third and fourth sets, was his best the entire clay-court season. His path forward to the French Open title got a little easier as well when Alexander Zverev, the 20-year-old Russian who destroyed Djokovic in the Italian Open final and was in Murray’s quarter of the draw, lost in four sets against Fernando Verdasco.
Murray will look to keep the momentum going when he takes on Martin Klizan in the second round. The British star will fancy his chances of doing just that as he has fared extremely well against Klizan in the past. He defeated Klizan in their lone meeting in Vienna last year, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0. Their upcoming second-round battle will be their first meeting on clay.
Expect Martin Klizan to hear it from the French crowd when he locks horns with Andy Murray this coming Thursday. Klizan didn’t endear himself to the Roland Garros fans after his disrespectful actions in the first-round win against French wildcard Laurent Lokoli. Klizan displayed poor sportsmanship when he celebrated Lokoli’s critical double fault in the fifth set. Such was Lokoli’s disgust that he refused to shake hands with Klizan after the match.
More than the partisan crowd, Klizan will have to worry more about the leg strain he suffered in the first round. Lokoli accused Klizan of faking this injury but the Slovak player did pull out of three tournaments before arriving here. He slugged it out for three hours and 39 minutes against Lokoli so Klizan will not be operating in full strength against Murray. That being said, Klizan played some solid tennis in that ill-tempered match against Lokoli and will still pose a major threat to the struggling Murray. He won 67 percent of his first serve points and converted five of his 11 break point opportunities in the win against Lokoli.
