Murray Refuses To Get Carried Away

26 May 2015, 07:12 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Andy Murray has poured cold water on the excitement surrounding three British players reaching the French Open second round for the first time since 2011.

Murray and Heather Watson both recorded straight-set wins while 20-year-old Kyle Edmund came from behind to win in five against France's Stephane Robert.

It is the first time in four years three British players have come through the first round in Paris but Murray says the most successful tennis nations expect far more from their players.

"For us it's great, but I don't think the other countries are looking at it and saying, 'I think it's great you have two or three players in the second round of a grand slam','' Murray said.

"It depends on what is 'doing well'.

"Winning a couple of rounds at a French Open for us, for the UK, is good but I don't think France or Spain or the Argentinians - I don't think they look at it and would be very impressed by that.

"A lot of the other nations have multiple players going deep into the grand slams and ultimately that's where you want to try to get to.

"Tennis in the UK is obviously a big sport, there's a lot of money invested in it, so you want to try to get as much depth as possible.''

Britain began the day with five players in the first round but Johanna Konta lost in three sets to Czech Denisa Allertova while Aljaz Bedene was beaten in four by Austria's Dominic Thiem.

"I saw a little bit of Bedene and Thiem's match before I went on,'' Murray said, as Konta and Edmund's matches were still playing.

"It seemed like it was a pretty good match. Thiem is obviously a tough opponent on clay.

"And then hopefully if we don't take too long in here and I can see the end of Kyle's match, because obviously it's a big match for him - I think he gets into the top 100 maybe if he wins that.

"It's obviously good that Heather has won. It's obviously nice - the more British players in the tournament the better.

"The last few years there has been lots of doubles guys around, which is nice, but more players in the singles, it's obviously good.''

Murray took less than two hours to beat Argentinian qualifier Facundo Arguello 6-3 6-3 6-1 as he bids to win his first title at Roland Garros.

The Scot was never at his fluent best but he rarely needed to be and he will now play either Canada's Vasek Pospisil or Portugal's Joao Sousa in round two.

"It was definitely tricky,'' Murray said.

"I felt like when I got some good depth into his backhand, I was able to dictate a lot of the points.

"When he hit the first ball with his forehand, he was able to make me run and do a lot of moving. He's a tough, tough player.''