Murray cheered by improving fitness
Andy Murray is optimistic his back problems will continue to ease after putting the drama of Thursday behind him with an impressive straight-sets win over Santiago Giraldo in the third round of the French Open.
The odds on the Scot still being in the tournament looked very slim when he struggled to such an extent against Jarkko Nieminen in round two that for much of the first set he was barely able to move. A back spasm had struck on Thursday morning and it was only a combination of treatment and charitable play from Nieminen that enabled him to come through on Saturday.
Colombian Giraldo fought hard, but Murray's game was extremely solid, and one break in each set proved good enough for a 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory. Murray said: "I felt like I moved pretty well. When you're playing in slams, I just think each day you need to take as it comes. And I felt much better than I did the other day. I felt better than I did yesterday."
He added: "So I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll feel good again, and that's all you've got to do is each day just be a little bit better."
The Scot will need to be as close to 100% as possible, because things get much tougher from here, with supremely-talented Frenchman Richard Gasquet to come in round four and David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal waiting in the wings.
Murray has been having intensive physiotherapy and manipulation from his personal physio, Andy Ireland, but he opted against a pain-killing injection of any kind.
He said: "Guys often during tournaments have numbing shots, if they're just trying to get through a match and are deep in a tournament or whatever.
"But I didn't do that. We got a lot of advice, I saw the doctor here and spoke to him as well, and took all the right medication and did all the right treatments."
