Murray is hopeful of checking Djokovic’s glory pursuit

The world No 1 already holds the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian titles and needs the French Open to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to make it four in a row.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have both had the chance to achieve the feat in recent years, the Swiss losing twice in French Open finals to Nadal, who succumbed to knee problems and David Ferrer in the Australian Open quarter-finals last year.

The strength of men’s tennis in this era, arguably the best in history, makes Djokovic’s run all the more remarkable, and denying Nadal a seventh Roland Garros triumph would surely be the most impressive of the lot.

There are no shortage of brilliant feats in tennis – Laver’s two ‘Grand Slams’, Federer’s 16 slam titles and 23 successive semi-finals and Nadal’s clay dominance. Assessing Djokovic’s potential achievement, Murray said: “It would be up there. There’s a lot of records that guys have had in streaks. Guys have had incredibly impressive and very, very difficult things to do.

“So I don’t know which one is better than the other. But if he was able to do it, which I hope he’s not, it would be an unbelievable effort.”

Murray, who is attempting to reach a sixth consecutive grand slam semi-final, will begin his French Open campaign against Japan’s Tatsuma Ito tomorrow.

Stanislas Wawrinka survived a spectacular mid-match slump to reach the second round at Roland Garros.

The Swiss No 2, seeded 18th, looked to be in control when he won the opening two sets against unheralded Italian Flavio Cipolla, but contrived to lose the next two and the match went into a decider.

Wawrinka roared into a 3-0 lead, though, and went on to complete a tortuous 6-3 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-2 win.

Ninth seed Juan Martin Del Potro had a more comfortable time as he won in four sets against Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-2 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 6-1.

Women’s sixth seed Samantha Stosur made largely untroubled progress into the second round with a straight-sets win over Great Britain’s Elena Baltacha.

The Australian broke serve in the second game and, though Baltacha recovered and was back on serve at 5-4, she dropped her serve and the set in game 10 and it was one-way traffic from then on.

The match was afforded the stadium stage of Philippe Chatrier Court but Baltacha won just nine points in the second set.

Laura Robson’s French Open heartbreak turned to joy yesterday as she earned a place in the main draw as a lucky loser due to Silvia Soler-Espinosa’s ankle injury.

The 18-year-old held two match points in her final qualifying round match with Czech Karolina Pliskova on Friday but eventually lost in three sets.

Robson will face 29th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.