Andy Murray vs. Mathias Bourgue: Score and Reaction from 2016 French Open

After narrowly escaping with a five-set victory in the first round of the French Open, No. 2-seeded Andy Murray pulled off another Houdini act in the second round on Wednesday by defeating Mathias Bourgue 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Murray’s first-round triumph over Radek Stepanek took two days to complete, which meant he entered Wednesday’s match on little rest. That may have factored into his struggles, but he managed to dig deep and take the final two sets despite facing a deficit.

The two-time Grand Slam champion entered the tilt as a significant favorite due to the large disparity in career accomplishments, as broken down by this BBC Sport graphic:

No rest for the wicked!Andy Murray is back in #RG16 action.Live on @5liveSport & online https://t.co/e43v4XAh9P pic.twitter.com/a7wmpuDHcj

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 25, 2016

Murray looked fantastic out of the gates and seemed poised for a quick match after suffering through a marathon against Stepanek.

He broke Bourgue twice in the set and mystified him on a number of occasions with fantastic rallies, such as this one, courtesy of Roland Garros on Twitter:

Watch this great point from Murray vs. Bourgue // ???? superbe point de Murray contre Bourgue #RG16 https://t.co/7qkXGI3L5v

— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 25, 2016

Despite Murray having all the momentum on his side, Bourgue completely flipped the script in the second set by impressively breaking the favorite three times and taking it 6-2.

As pointed out by Stuart Fraser of MailOnline, it has been quite uncommon in recent years for Murray to struggle against low-ranked opponents:

World No 164 Mathias Bourgue wins 2nd set. Lowest-ranked player that Andy Murray has lost a set to since John Millman (199) at Brisbane 2013

— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) May …

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