French Open 2014: Andy Murray Stumbles Past Andrey Golubev

Andy Murray was given a brief scare by world No.72 Andrey Golubev before reaching the second round of the French Open in four sets on his return to Roland Garros.

Murray won 6-1 6-4 3-6 6-3 in uncertain fashion and will face Australian Marinko Matosevic for a place in the third round.

But despite being boosted by the shock exit of Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, the Scot began his campaign in Paris in timid mood against a robust Golubev on Suzanne Lenglen.

"Obviously I missed last year so I was a bit nervous," said Murray. "Conditions were tricky. I am just concentrating on my matches and will try and win as many as I can."

In his first match at Roland Garros since 2012, Murray was quickly into the ascendency with an early break which quickly became a 4-0 lead as the errors flowed from the Golubev racquet.

The Kazakhstan Davis Cup player showed signs of some finesse on the backhand aside, breaking back but it was a rare glimpse of his talent in a one-sided opening set which Murray eventually took 6-1.

Golubev provided a greater resistance in the second set, holding Murray off until the fifth game where the Wimbledon champion broke through, only to have his lead extinguish as his opponent levelled at 4-4.

The British No.1 – who called for a distracting aerial camera to be disabled mid-way through the set - retook the initiative in the next game however and served out the set at the first time of asking.

But Golubev's improvement continued in the third set but his consistency was restricting his ability to stage an unlikely comeback. The world No.72 - who had only won one previous match in the main draw at the French Open - threw away a 3-1 with a sloppy double-fault to let Murray off the hook.

As the third set continued to ebb and flow Golubev took advantage of a lack of concentration from Murray to win three of the next four games to half the deficit and take the Brit to a fourth set.

However, it was a mere blip for Murray who grabbed an early break and though he missed the chance to grab a double break following a superb cross-court running backhand, Golubev was begining to wilt.

As the clock ticked over the two and a half hour mark Murray served out the match, converting the third of three break points to reach round two.