When the draw for the French Open came out, this was seen as easily the most difficult of the first round matches.  Although Gasquet was ranked in the high 60s when the draw was made, a ranking that dropped into the low 40s by Monday when his win in Nice counted to his results, he had once been ranked as high as 7.  More than that Gasquet had a 2-1 head-to-head record winning their first two meetings.  One of the important matches that spurred on Murray’s ascendancy to the top 5 was a quarterfinal victory at Wimbledon 2008.  Down two sets to love, Murray clawed back to win this match in five sets.

With Murray on his weakest surface and Gasquet having won a Challenger in Bordeaux followed by an ATP 250 in Nice over Fernando Verdasco, there was some concern that Murray would not be able to beat Gasquet.  Despite having been trained in France on the clay, Gasquet has done well on faster surfaces and has even reached the semis of Wimbledon.

Murray struggled early on clay this year, a fallout of his blues from losing the Australian Open final.  However, he worked hard to get his game ready for clay which involved learning to hit harder on the clay and win points on winners rather than wait for errors.

All this didn’t seem to matter as Murray, again, failed to serve above 50% and found himself unable to reach break points on Gasquet’s serve.  Murray got a break down in the first set and then managed to stay even on serve but lose the second set in a tiebreak.  In the third set, Murray got down a break, and things looked gloomy for the world number 4.   Any time Murray seemed to have chances to get to a break point, say, a 15-30 situation, Gasquet would either serve big or hit a big approach and Murray seemed helpless trying to pressure his rival.

Murray must have been wondering if he was going to hit a trifecta of 1st round defeats to French players.  In 2006, Gael Monfils beat Murray in five sets on the clay of Roland Garros.  In 2008, he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round of the Australian Open.  Was Gasquet going to beat Murray in the first round of the French?

Gasquet’s victory in Nice was not fully without incident.  In the third set, Gasquet called for trainers to treat his leg.  He had requested his match be postponed one day to give him a chance to recover more fully.  By the third set, his leg was bothering him again, and Murray was finally able to get break points and break.  Gasquet broke a second time, but Murray immediate broke back and then broke once more to take the third set.

At this point, it seemed only a matter of time before Murray won, provided Gasquet wasn’t trying to reserve energy for a fifth set.  Gasquet’s serve speed decreased and he was going for bigger shots and missing more.  In the end, Gasquet hit more unforced errors even as hit a few more winners, and Murray’s fitness to play 5 sets paid off.

Up next for Murray is Juan Ignacio Chela.  Chela has a history with Murray too.  Chela beat Murray in the 1st round of the Australian Open in 2006.  However, much more recently, Murray beat Chela in the second round of Madrid rather comfortably.

In a surprise win, Kei Nishikori who has not played on the tour in months due to a wrist injury came back in five sets to beat Santiago Giraldo after being down 2 sets to love.  Nishikori didn’t hit as many winners as Giraldo, but he also didn’t make as many errors.

Gael Monfils won his match in four sets over Dieter Kindlmann.  Bellucci beat Llodra easily in straight sets.  Granollers beat Mathieu when Mathieu retired in the 3rd set despite having won the first set.  Gonzalez, who hasn’t played much lately, beat Alves of Brazil in four sets.  Baghdatis beat Jesse Witten in straight sets.  Dolgopolov beat veteran Arnaud Clement in 5 sets after being down 2 sets to 1.

Victor Troicki upset Tommy Robredo in straight sets.  Almagro has forced a fifth set against Haase after being down 2 sets to 1 and a break in the fourth set.