These were amongst the big names advancing into the second round of this year’s French Open 2016.
Tuesday’s busy schedule saw the number 1 in the world Novak Djokovic in action against Yen-Hsun Lu, Andy Murray resuming last night’s thriller with Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych entertaining the Canadian Vasek Pospisil in a busy day of action at Roland Garros. John Isner and Dominic Thiem also kicked off their 2016 campaigns facing challenging opposition in John Millman and Inigo Cervantes respectively.
All eyes were on Andy Murray as soon as he stepped on court Philippe-Chatrier early this afternoon eager to recover a 2 set to 1 deficit from last night. Murray was a break up in the 4th set leading 4-2 when the match was postponing due to darkness. The British number however wasn’t going to take any risks today, facing a resilient Radek Stepanek who continued to find the court just as well as he did last night. Murray held serve to claim the 4th set 6-3 and went on to wear out the 37-year-old Czech legend right up till the end breaking crucially in the 11th game of the final set to wrap up a battled first round encounter 3-6 3-6 6-0 6-3 7-5.
Meanwhile the world number 1 Novak Djokovic made short work of Yen-Hsun Lu with a somewhat competed first set, but raced to the end in just under 90 minutes winning 6-4 6-1 6-1.
Young promising talent Dominic Thiem was put to the test by the Spaniard Inigo Cervantes losing the first set 6-3. However, the Austrian was quick to react and showed just why he is one of the few outsiders who can challenge anyone on clay, as he has shown up to now this year. His mental strength and sheer class helped power him into the second round with a 4 set victory 3-6 6-2 7-5 6-1. He now faces another Spanish clay court specialist Guillermo Garcia Lopez who overcame a last fight from Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker also in 4 sets.
Amongst other winners today were Joh Isner who survived some trouble from Australian John Millman 6-7 7-6 7-6 7-5 in another long match which was resumed from last night. Tomas Berdych also booked his place in the second round with a comprehensive win over Vasek Pospisil 6-3 6-2 6-1. The number 7 seed now faces Malek Jaziri who edged past Florian Mayer of Germany 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-2.
