French Open:Marcos Baghdatis tonight predicted a "great fight" with Andy Murray after the pair set up a French Open third-round clash at the end of a rain-blighted fifth day at Roland Garros.
Like Murray, Baghdatis saw his second-round clash suspended last night after bad weather meant he did not get on court until early evening.
And like Murray, the Cypriot was forced to wait before getting on court today, the 24-year-old converting a two sets to one lead into a 4-6 6-1 7-5 6-2 victory over Marcel Granollers on Court Three.
Murray and Baghdatis have not met since 2007, with the latter boasting a 2-0 lead in their head-to-head.
He said: “It’s nice to play against opponents that it will be a great fight. Andy is a great player. Not only a great player, but a great fighter on court.
“He can last, so I’m looking forward to playing a great match with him. I’m not gonna think about it tonight. I won a match. I’ll relax for tonight and see how things go tomorrow.”
Murray admitted he feared his second-round match would go into a third day after finally polishing off Juan Ignacio Chela in the gloom.
A succession of delays on a rain-blighted day five of the tournament threatened to derail the world number four’s bid to wrap up what was a sixth straight victory over Chela.
But he survived the loss of the second set and two rain breaks to win 6-2 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 6-2 on Court One at 8.56pm local time and set up a third-round clash with Baghdatis.
“It got dark quickly today and at the end of the match I was lucky I managed to get another break,” said Murray. “Because I think, at max, we would have had two games left.”
Only six men’s singles matches were completed today after the first four and a half hours of action were wiped out by rain.
Half of those were held over from last night, with Fabio Fognini finally completing an epic comeback against French number 13 seed Gael Monfils in a contest tournament organisers appeared hell bent on finishing in virtual darkness yesterday before finally conceding defeat.
With the match level at 5-5 in the fifth set at today’s resumption, Fognini sealed a 2-6 4-6 7-5 6-4 9-7 success, much to the disappointment of a partisan Philippe Chatrier Court.
Andy Roddick’s 6-3 5-7 6-4 6-2 win over Blaz Kavcic was one of only two men’s singles match to start and finish today, the American sixth seed enjoying only marginally more serene progress than his first-round five-setter.
He admitted afterwards: “It was brutal for me out there. I couldn’t get my serve to go anywhere and the ball was just sitting up. I woke up this morning, looked out my window, and knew that it was gonna be a long one.”
Number 17 seed John Isner took full advantage of some overnight thinking time to recover from a set down to beat Marco Chiudinelli 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (9/7) 6-4.
Ivan Ljubicic (14) and Thomaz Bellucci (24) will have to wait until tomorrow to complete their matches. Both were level at one set all against Mardy Fish and Pablo Andujar, respectively, when darkness fell.
The backlog of matches forced tournament organisers to postpone several contests involving seeds scheduled for this afternoon until tomorrow. Among them were four-time champion Rafael Nadal’s meeting with Horacio Zeballos.