After narrowly escaping with a five-set victory in the first round of the French Open, No. 2-seeded Andy Murray pulled off another Houdini act in the second round on Wednesday by defeating Mathias Bourgue6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.Murray's first-round triumph over Radek Stepanek took two days to complete, which meant he entered Wednesday's match on little rest. That may have factored into his struggles, but he managed to dig deep and take the final two sets despite facing a deficit.The two-time Grand Slam champion entered the tilt as a significant favorite due to the large disparity in career accomplishments, as broken down by this BBC Sport graphic:Murray looked fantastic out of the gates and seemed poised for a quick match after suffering through a marathon against Stepanek.He broke Bourgue twice in the set and mystified him on a number of occasions with fantastic rallies, such as this one, courtesy of Roland Garros on Twitter:Despite Murray having all the momentum on his side, Bourgue completely flipped the script in the second set by impressively breaking the favorite three times and taking it 6-2.As pointed out by Stuart Fraser ofMailOnline, it has been quite uncommon in recent years for Murray to struggle against low-ranked opponents:Things only got worse for the Brit in the third set, as Bourgue continued to roll with 15 winners, which pushed him to a 6-4 win and 2-1 advantage overall.Following Bourgue's set point, the French crowd was firmly behind their countryman, as he pulled to within one set of advancing to the third round:Murray reaching the brink of elimination yet again caused Courtney Nguyen of WTA Insider to quip that he may have an affinity for the red stuff:There is no question that Murray has had his struggles on clay over the years, but ESPN's Brad Gilbert gave Bourgue full credit for getting the No. 2 seed on the ropes:While Murray often puts himself in difficult predicaments, he is extremely resilient, and that was on full display in the fourth set.He battled back to decisively win the fourth set 6-2 and continued to roll in the early portion of the fifth set with shots like this one:Bourgue's best opportunity to shut the door on Murray came in the fourth set, and although he did show some fight in the fifth by breaking Murray once, he didn't have enough in the tank to take down the Olympic gold medalist.Murray is still searching for his top form in Paris, but the fact he has managed to make it through to the third round despite playing nowhere near his potential could be considered a positive from his perspective.There have been plenty of moments of brilliance, but as explained by Liam Canning of theMirror, it has been a roller-coaster ride thus far:Murray has remarkable stamina, but he now faces a situation he hasn't dealt with in more than a decade, according to Fraser:It isn't an ideal situation for Murray, but tiredness may not play a big role in his third-round match against No. 27 Ivo Karlovic.The big-serving Croatian isn't much for long rallies, so Murray lucked out with regard to the draw after playing two grueling matches.Murray is in a half of the draw that allows him to avoid top-seeded Novak Djokovic and nine-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal until the final, although reigning champ Stan Wawrinka is a potential semifinal opponent.He has a fairly favorable draw that could lead to an appearance in the final, but if his inconsistency continues, it figures to burn him before he reaches that point.Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.
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