Murray bounces back against Niemenen, Nadal is lean and hungry

Five things we learned from day five at Roland Garros.

Reuters/François Lenoir

•  You’ve got to kill off a wounded animal. British fourth seed Andy Murray was a set down to Jarkko Niemenen, trailing by a break in the second set and suffering from a muscle spasm in his leg but the veteran Finn failed to inflict the coup de grace. Murray turned it around to win in four sets.

• Andy Murray might be one of those unlucky players. Clearly the Scot is talented but if he’s not battling injuries, he’s plying his trade at the end of the Federer supremacy and the dawn of the Nadal Djokovic duopoly.

• There’s nothing like a comeback. Paul-Henri Mathieu was out for 15 months due to injuries. For five hours and 41 minutes he slugged it out with the American 10th seed John Isner and prevailed 18-16 in the fifth.
• John Isner will be worried every time he plays a Frenchman. The 27-year-old American was involved in the longest match in grand slam history with Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon two years ago (11 hours 5 minutes) and his second round epic at the French Open with Paul-Henri Mathieu (5 hours 41 mintues) means he’s been involved in two of the longest singles matches in grand slams.
• Rafael Nadal is looking mean and hungry. The six-times champion annihilated Dennis Istomin from Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in less than two hours.