Reuters: Sports News: Murray battles through despite back problem

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Murray battles through despite back problem May 31st 2012, 14:54 Andy Murray of Britain receives medical help during his match against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris May 31, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir By Clare Fallon PARIS | Thu May 31, 2012 10:54am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - World number four Andy Murray battled through back pain to win his second-round match at the French Open against Finn Jarkko Nieminen on Thursday. The Briton, who said later he came within a few points of retiring, won 1-6 6-4 6-1 6-2, and will face unseeded Colombian Santiago Giraldo in the third round. Murray, a semi-finalist here last year, summoned the trainer three times during the opening set and lay on a towel, grimacing in pain, as his back was massaged. He opted to stand during changeovers but started to move more easily as the match progressed and began hitting winners. The 48th-ranked Nieminen was unable to take advantage of Murray's troubles and hit more unforced errors than the Scot in the later sets. When he put a backhand out to give Murray breakpoint in the seventh game of the final set, Nieminen threw his racket to the clay and stamped on it. A double fault followed, and Murray went 5-2 up. Murray had to withdraw from the Madrid Masters this month with a back injury but said Thursday's problem was a different, though possibly related, issue. "It wasn't the same thing I had before," he told a news conference. "I was absolutely fine yesterday in practice, no problem, went to bed and I was fine, and I woke up this morning...couldn't put any weight on my left leg." Murray said he considered pulling out before the match but, after taking advice from his physiotherapist that the problem was probably a back spasm and playing would not aggravate the underlying injury, decided to go ahead. "After I got up from the changeover at 3â€'0, it was really, really sore," he added. "And then obviously I was struggling a lot for about an hour, hour 15, hour-and-a-half. "Then it started to feel a bit better but still not great, but (I was) just kind of gritting my teeth and trying to find a way of turning the match around, because I was a few points probably from stopping in the middle of the second set." Murray said standing at the change of ends eased his back but he still could not believe he had a chance of winning the match. "Him making a few mistakes and getting a little bit nervous and me feeling a little bit better, and then that was it," he said. "I couldn't believe I was in a position to win at the end of the fourth set." Murray, crediting his personal physiotherapist as "one of the best" said he would play on and was not afraid of jeopardizing his chances for Wimbledon next month or the London Olympics in July and August. "I'm going to try and carry on regardless, whether it's a bit sorer tomorrow or two days' time, I'm going to carry on," he said. "If it was the same thing, then I would be really, really concerned about Wimbledon and obviously the Olympics but so long as what I'm getting told by doctors and the physios is that it is just a muscle spasm then that's nothing to be overly concerned by." (Editing by Alison Wildey) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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