Murray reaches first French fourth round

By Sonia Oxley

PARIS (Reuters) - Third seed Andy Murray reached the French Open fourth round for the first time on Friday after Janko Tipsarevic retired hurt with the Briton leading by two sets.

The Serb called on the trainer twice in the second set, receiving massage for a hamstring problem and swallowing a couple of tablets. Moving with difficulty, he called it a day at 7-6 6-3 knowing he could not last another three sets.

"I was feeling the pain in the right leg and I couldn't slide on my forehand, I started putting so much pressure on the left leg. Then the left leg was starting to fall apart, also," Tipsarevic told a news conference.

"Even though it was 6-3, I was more or less embarrassing myself dragging myself on the court.

"The only thing I could do is run on the one side, hit a bomb, and pray it's going in."

He added that he expected to be fit in time for the grasscourt season which starts in 10 days.

Murray made a slow start, allowing Tipsarevic two breaks for a 5-2 lead before the Scot woke up to save two set points on the way to setting up the tiebreak 7-3 where he nailed the set with a tight-angled backhand.

They traded breaks at the start of the second before Murray took the set with a powerful crosscourt backhand to reach the last 16.