Murray into fourth round at French Open

Britain’s Andy Murray returns the ball during the third round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France, Sunday, June 1, 2014. AP

PARIS — Andy Murray reached the fourth round of the French Open on Sunday with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

The match had been held over from Saturday evening with the match tied at 7-7 in the fifth set.

Murray will next play Fernando Verdasco for a place in the quarter-finals after the Spaniard defeated Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in another match held over from Saturday.

Murray had seen winning positions evaporate late Saturday as he led 4-2 in the fourth set and 2-0 in the fifth and he looked up to the heavens after missing a match point at 9-8 on the resumption.

The Wimbledon champion again seemed to be troubled by an injury to his left leg and Kohlschreiber, who won the Nuremberg claycourt title in the lead-in to Roland Garros, had a break point to serve for the match.

Murray saved that though and then let loose in the 22nd game of the set to force his second match point which he took with a stunning backhand return.

It was the longest fifth set of Murray’s career and the first time he had been taken the full distance since defeating Verdasco in last year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals.

“Last night was tough for me as I did a lot of running, so under the circumstances we both played some good points. It was a pretty high standard,” he said.

“It’s not easy coming back at sevens in the fifth set.”

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