ANDY MURRAY was made to fight tooth and nail to get past Radek Stepanek in the first round of the French Open.
The Brit No1, 29, found himself two sets down after struggling to find his feet early doors, going 6-3 6-3 down.
Yet the Dunblane ace roared back winning the next two 6-0 6-2.
The fifth set didn’t go all Murray’s way however, as Czech veteran Stepanek, 37, stepped up his serve-volley game to quash the threat of the Brit’s powerful baseline game — taking a 4-3 lead in the decider.
The match wore on and Muzz was forced to serve to save the match at 5-4 down, which he did successfully.
New balls were taken — which cleared worked in the Brit’s favour, instantly breaking for a 6-5 lead, to serve for the match.
And the No2 seed just about held to progress to the second round where he will take on French world No164 Mathias Bourgue.
On the defiant Stepanek, Murray was full of praise, saying: “It’s unbelievable what he’s doing.
“He had an extremely bad injury last year and was out for eight or nine months.
“Still at 37 years old to be coming out and fighting like that and playing that way is unbelievable.
“I wasn’t able to dictate many points and I couldn’t find any rhythm and that’s credit to how he played.
“I fought extremely hard and thankfully I will be back to play again tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, there was good news for another Brit in the drew, Aljaz Bedene, who beat Jurgen Melzer 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 earlier on Tuesday.
Britain’s female contingent, Laura Robson and Jo Konta, are both in action later on Tuesday looking to add to Heather Watson’s superb win yesterday.
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