Murray stretched as Edmund enters new territory

By contrast, Yorkshireman Kyle Edmund reached the third round of the French Open for the first time with an impressive victory over Argentina’s Renzo Olivo.

The first set on Court Suzanne Lenglen was a horror show for Murray against a player who almost skipped Roland Garros because of a calf injury.

But Murray turned things around to win 6-7 (3/7) 6-2 6-2 7-6 (7/3) and set up a third-round clash against former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro.

It is tough to see Murray winning that one without a significant improvement in his form, although Del Potro was struggling physically before second-round opponent Nicolas Almagro was forced to retire with a knee injury.

After three hours and 35 minutes on court, Murray said: “I expected it to be very tough. He (Klizan) goes for huge shots and on his forehand, he can hit winners from anywhere.

“Sometimes you think you’ve hit a good shot and he comes up with unbelievable power. It’s very tough. I tried to play solid; as the match went on I tried to hit the ball deeper and was controlling more of the points.”

Murray finished his first-round match against Andrey Kuznetsov with a run of eight games in a row and with the mood cautiously optimistic.

Having arrived in Paris short of wins and confidence, Murray was hoping the best-of-five-set format and relatively kind draw would allow him to play himself into form.

But any confidence he had gained swiftly evaporated in the early afternoon sunshine as Klizan, ranked 50th, took an early hold on the match.

Muttering about his movement, Murray was passive and error-strewn, allowing his opponent to dominate with his big forehand.

Murray looked to have turned a corner when he broke Klizan as he served for the first set at 5-4, but the Scot then played an awful tie-break.

Even when he won the second set with a run of five straight games, there were plenty of alarm bells ringing.

Klizan’s play had become a lot more erratic, the 27-year-old no longer finding the mark so often with his forehand and appearing bothered again by his calf.

Murray extended his winning streak to seven games at the start of the third set and finally seemed to be finding a bit of rhythm.

Two points in the opening game where he turned defence into attack were reminiscent of Murray at his best, but, although he took the set, he was still a long way from that.

Klizan had infuriated his previous opponent Laurent Lokoli to such an extent that the Frenchman refused to shake his hand. Apparently close to retirement one minute, Klizan recovered from dropping the fourth set to love to win in five.

Murray had said he would be ready for any such antics, but the world No 1 was consumed by his own frustration as he got bogged down in the fourth set.

Chuntering away to himself, his box and the umpire, Murray lost the first three games despite having chances to win all of them.

Klizan veered from appearing to be on his last legs one minute to sprinting full pelt the next, producing some fine shots when he most needed them and torturing Murray with drop shots.

But, as in the first set, he could not serve it out, and Murray should have made it two straight breaks in a long 11th game.

He continued to do things the hard way, but Klizan’s resistance finally came to an end in the tie-break and Murray took his second match point with one of his best shots, somehow digging out a forehand winner.

Meanwhile, Edmund, the British No 2 is yet to drop a set at Roland Garros this year and blasted his way to a 7-5 6-3 6-1 win in two hours and two minutes.

Olivo produced one of the stories of the first round with his upset of French favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but things were rather different away from the limelight on Court 6.

It will not have seen many bigger forehands than Edmund’s and time and again Olivo was left helpless.

Edmund is ranked 42 places above his opponent and made that show, looking confident and composed even when he failed to serve out the first set.

Edmund promptly broke again in the 12th game and did not look back, increasing his dominance as the match progressed.

The only thing that held up the 22-year-old in the third set was a medical time-out for his opponent, with Edmund racking up 30 winners during the match.

This is the second time Edmund has made the last 32 at a slam. At last year’s US Open he defeated Richard Gasquet and John Isner before losing to Novak Djokovic.