• French Open, Day Six

Murray stutters past Baghdatis

Andy Murray was not at his best but still had enough to beat Marcos Baghdatis © Getty Images

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Andy Murray produced the sublime and the ridiculous as he progressed to the fourth round of the French Open with a 6-2 6-3 0-6 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis.

The Scot was in complete command of the contest at two sets to the good, but inexplicably dropped his level to lose the third set to love and was broken at the start of the fourth.

Baghdatis threatened to force a decider, but out of the blue Murray opted to play with more authority and reeled off three games on the spin before closing out the match.

Baghdatis started well with a love service game, but he did little to replicate the effort in the remainder of the first set as a string of errors handed the set to Murray.

Murray made an excellent start to the second set, as an early break handed him his sixth game on the spin. Baghdatis stopped the rot as he broke back, but it was only a brief respite as errors continued to come from his racket - particularly on serve.

The final game of the second set was arguably Murray's best as he showed tremendous court coverage and a range of shots. But with the winning post in sight, he inexplicably stepped off the accelerator and this handed an opening to Baghdatis.

With the door only slightly ajar, Baghdatis stormed through. He opened his shoulders and crashed winners on both wings. Murray had no answer as the Cypriot raced through a love set and a double fault at the start of the fourth handed Baghdatis his seventh game on the spin.

Murray seems to thrive on crisis situations as he broke back immediately and found some momentum. A grit of the teeth and a 'come on' later and Murray was back in the ascendency.

He knocked the belief out of Baghdatis with a sublime lob volley and it was appropriate that he sealed victory with a trademark drop shot.

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