French Open 2016: Andy Murray’s hopes remain in the balance, Heather Watson and Kyle Edmund through to round two
Andy Murray will resume his first-round match against Radek Stepanek on Tuesday with his French Open hopes hanging by a thread.
The world number two was regarded by many as the second favourite for the title heading into the tournament but he looked like anything but as he dropped the opening two sets to 37-year-old qualifier Stepanek.
Murray recovered to win from two sets down eight times in his career and he must do so again after play was called off for the night at 9.22pm with Stepanek leading 6-3 6-3 0-6 2-4.
Meanwhile, Heather Watson saw off Nicole Gibbs and the Paris weather to reach the second round of the French Open, all but securing her place at the Rio Olympics.
Rain forced the postponement of the match on Sunday night with American Gibbs, who is Watson's doubles partner this week, a break up early in the third set.
But Watson won all five games on the resumption to triumph 5-7 6-2 6-2 and set up a second-round clash with former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Kyle Edmund reached the second round for the second successive year with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-7 (9/7) 7-5 6-1 win over qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili that lasted two hours and 47 minutes and finished with the darkness closing.
And Naomi Broady was beaten on her Roland Garros debut. She gave a good account of herself on her least-favourite surface against American Coco Vandeweghe. Broady was a break up in each set but could not turn that into victory as Vandeweghe triumphed 6-4 3-6 6-3.
Elsewhere, world number three Stan Wawrinka defeated Lukas Rosol, Kei Nishikori beat Simone Bolelli and in the women’s Agnieszka Radwanska advances to the second round with a win over Bojana Jovanovski.