TENNIS in DEPTH.

Andy Murray survived a scare at the French Open on Wednesday, eventually winning a see-saw contest against Potito Starace to book his place in the third round.

Murray came through a 6-3 2-6 7-5 6-4 winner but not before he had found himself 5-1 down in the third set and in all sorts of trouble against the world number 104.

The first set suggested it would simply be a routine day at the office for the British star, a break in the fifth game seeing him take control.

After losing the opener 6-3, Starace, a claycourt specialist, looked almost resigned to his fate.

But he suddenly raised his level, pinning Murray back with his impressive forehand and when he claimed a thrilling third game of the second set – breaking Murray for the first time – he took control of the match.

Starace’s resurgence was startling, the Italian producing fewer errors and more winners than in the first set. In contrast, Murray’s error count rose considerably and it was soon a set apiece.

Murray was unable to stem the tide in the third set either and by the time Starace had established a 5-1 lead, his use of the drop shot baffling the Briton, Murray had lost 11 of the last 13 games.

Then from nowhere, Murray launched his fightback. The spark was a superb crosscourt winner off the forehand wing which got one of the breaks back.

He saved a set point before breaking to love to level up the set, geeing himself up with shouts of ‘come on’.

Now it was Starace lacking the craft to turn things around and after losing a sixth straight game, the Italian returned to his chair and buried his head in his towel.

To his credit, Starace refused to wilt in the fourth set, but with Murray easily holding his serve chances were few and far between.

An opportunity finally came in the 10th game as Murray turned up the pressure.

Two match points were missed but on the third the Scot came up with a rasping forehand winner to clinch his place in the last 32 where he will face either Feliciano Lopez or Janko Tipsarevic.

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