TENNIS/FRENCH OPEN:GOODBYES WERE in the air, with Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, three times the French Open champion, the beloved Guga who rocked Roland Garros to a samba beat, making his final farewell on the clay and sinking into retirement after yesterday's first-round, straights-sets defeat against France's Paul-Henri Mathieu. For Britain's Andy Murray the opening day of this year's French Open threatened an altogether more painful departure.

That Murray survived, for his first match win in this tournament, was an occasion for strictly muted celebration. He was up against the youngest and most inexperienced player in the tournament, yet French wildcard Jonathan Eysseric took him to five sets before fatigue set in and Murray won 6-2, 1-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

The only plus the Scot could take was that he won, although afterwards he revealed he had been on antibiotics for the last five days with a bad throat.

There are two Murrays. One is capable of playing to a standard that has singled him out as a possible future grand slam champion. The other is a passive, tactically confused specimen who, as in so much of this match, allowed his opponent to seize the initiative and hit the first telling stroke. "I didn't play particularly well," he said. Hold the "particularly".

Then there is the drop shot. In his early junior days Murray used to play it when he was tired, a way of cutting short a point; here he seemed intent on using it to cut his throat, as sore as it had been.

Initially he made his attempts at one so obvious that Eysseric, an exceptionally quick mover, simply ran them down. Thereafter, Murray could not even get them over the net.

"Rubbish," he muttered after one particularly dire effort. And it was. "There are times when you know it is the wrong shot but they worked a lot towards the end," he said.

The trouble was the end might well have come a lot quicker if he had rationed them in the second and third sets. The throat infection had already reduced his preparation and training by half and, having won the opening set, he really should have imposed himself for a quick kill.

This should have been a Sunday promenade for the Scot, similar to the sort of strolls that those who live in the city make along the nearby Bois de Boulogne, and initially it appeared that way. True, Murray lost his opening service game but he broke the young Frenchman, who was pressing far too hard and consequently making numerous errors, three times.

The crowd tried to lift their man, although they seemed to have settled for nothing more than a brave effort from Eysseric, who was having only his second match at this level, having been beaten in the first round of the French Open last year just before he turned professional.

Eysseric, who turns 18 tomorrow, steadied himself while Murray descended into one of those languid, passive states that so infuriatingly punctuate many of his matches. The second set was over in 24 minutes, Eysseric was level, and the crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen began to stir.

The clay was duly wiped clean for the start of the third, but not Murray's mind. More drop shots, more masochistic pain.

The Frenchman sprinted to a 5-2 lead, only to lose his nerve for the first time when serving for a two-sets-to-one lead.

Then, at 5-4, came the first piece of real encouragement for Murray. Eysseric, a former junior world number one, called for the trainer to have both calves treated for cramp. Murray could not save the set, but he quickly took the initiative in the fourth as it became clear his opponent was close to being a spent force.