Murray fears another marathon match

Andy Murray admits another five-set epic against Juan Ignacio Chela in round two of the French Open could kill off his hopes of making the second week at Roland Garros.

Murray was getting over Monday's marathon 4-6 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-2 6-1 first-round win over Richard Gasquet, which saw him on court for four hours and four minutes. As well as suffering the obvious fatigue from such a gruelling encounter, the 23-year-old Scot was once again troubled by the tendonitis in his right knee which he is fast learning to live with.

"You obviously can't play that many five-set matches," Murray said. "I hope in the next round, if I play well, I can come through that a bit quicker, because it's important if you want to play well, here especially, to conserve some energy."

Murray lifted the lid on just how serious a problem his knee has become.

"It's just something I was born with, and am just going to have to deal with for my whole career," he said. "It's a lot worse than people think. It hurts the majority of the year.

"It's a lot easier mentally than when other things are sore, because I've had it since I was 16.

"It's not like I can do my knee a whole lot of damage. It's just pretty much tendinitis."

Indeed, Murray is confident of being able to nurse himself back to health in time for his match with Chela.

"I'm going to practise late," he said. "I'll practise in the afternoon, so I can sleep late and eat a lot and just rest and recover. I've dealt with it for a long, long time now. So I just need to make sure I manage it well.

"I treat it pretty much the same way the whole time throughout the year."