By Pritha Sarkar
PARIS (Reuters) - Andy Murray showed a lot of heart, he definitely showed he was not a quitter but what he now wants to show is that his aching body will not let him down after he survived two bruising five-set encounters at the French Open.
For the first time in his grand slam career, the world number two won back-to-back five-setters with victories over 37-year-old Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek and French wildcard Mathias Bourgue.
But having already spent more than seven exhausting hours on court just to get to round three, Murray knows he cannot afford to suffer the kind of meltdowns that left him losing eight games in a row, including 16 successive points, against little-known Bourgue.
"You can't play too many matches like this if you want to go far in this tournament. I lost my way on the court today for quite a while," admitted second seed Murray, who won only 12 points during a forgettable second set.
"I was losing a lot of games at love. I couldn't see where his shots were going. It was a big struggle.
"I did come up with some lucky shots today. I was a bit lucky also."
He certainly was lucky as the Scot hit fewer winners (46 to Bourgue's 55), produced more unforced errors (45 to Bourgue's 44) and won 137 points compared to Bourgue's tally of 138 -- yet he was the one celebrating a third round date with the tallest man in tennis, Ivo Karlovic.
Wednesday's stats were certainly a far cry from Murray's recent performances on red dust.
According to the ATP Performance Zone stats, the Briton has won 85 percent of his matches on clay since 2015, more than any other player, including Serbian winning machine Novak Djokovic.
But as far as Murray was concerned, the only point that counted was the very last one.
"I managed to win the match. That's what I'm here to do," said Murray, who beat Djokovic to win the Italian Open in the run up to Roland Garros.
"I don't want to play five sets every round and don't want to have big dropoffs in matches. I lost my way a bit.
"I showed a lot of heart the last few days in tough matches," added the second seed who celebrated Wednesday's win by poking his chest with his index finger.
"I have showed positive qualities the last couple of matches to get myself out of difficult situations, and that was it.
"Maybe I was not feeling or playing my best, but I found a way to win."
