PARIS — Take comfort amid the fatigue, Andy Murray. The French Open can still be won even after playing back-to-back five-setters in the first two rounds.
Gastón Gaudio, a mercurial, unseeded Argentine, did it as recently as 2004.
But it is certainly not the classic way of going about winning the French Open. Considering how much clay-court tennis Murray has played this spring in Europe, his early-round tussles at Roland Garros could make the homestretch even more of an endurance test.
Murray, the No. 2 seed, arrived in Paris on a high after upsetting Novak Djokovic in the final in Rome, but his performance here has so far been quantity over quality.