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Ten days ago, tennis world No 2 Andy Murray beat the only man ranked above him, Novak Djokovic, in straight sets to win the Rome Masters title. Despite his being the second-highest ranked player in the world, it still came as an upset considering the form Djokovic has been in over the last 18 months. The win was perfect preparation for the French Open, which the Scotsman has never won.

On Monday, Murray came up against a 37-year-old veteran of the game, Radek Stepanek. The Czech had turned pro in 1997, when Murray was all of 10 years old. Stepanek was once ranked as high as eighth in the world in singles, but had a better reputation as a doubles player, having won the 2012 Australian Open and the 2013 US Open men's doubles titles with Leander Paes.

Thus, it was supposed to be nothing but a walkover for Murray, 29, up against the oldest player in the men's singles draw. However, the Czech clearly had other plans as he stormed to a two-set lead. Murray pulled one back before bad light stopped play on Monday. When the match resumed on Tuesday, Murray was pushed hard, but managed to win it.

It went down to a decider, where Stepanek continued to wow the crowd with some amazing winners, frustrating Murray. The Scotsman was two points from defeat at 4-5 in the final set, but managed to hold on to his serve, before breaking Stepanek in the next game. That was the match, as Murray soon sealed a five-set win.

It wasn't to be a fairytale for Stepanek, but his opponent only had words of praise for him. "He had an extremely bad injury last year and still at 37 coming out and fighting like that, playing that way, it's unbelievable," said Murray after the match, as reported by the BBC. "I don't expect to be doing that myself at that age. I'm just glad I managed to get through."

Sadly, the French Open's official highlights package does no justice to the encounter, cutting down a three-hour-41-minute epic to just over two minutes.