In the women’s competition, Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber of Germany wasn’t quite as lucky as she suffered a surprise reverse at the hands of world number 58 Kiki Bertens of The Netherlands.

Murray had found himself teetering on the brink of an early departure from the second Grand Slam tournament of the season as 37-year-old Štěpánek raced into a two-set lead when their match got underway yesterday.

The world number two battled back and led 4-2 in the fourth before bad light brought proceedings to a close.

Resuming earlier today, the two-time Grand Slam winner carried on in the same vein as the previous evening and eventually managed to wrap up a 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 victory to set up a meeting with French wildcard Mathias Bourgue.

“He had an extremely bad injury last year and still at 37 coming out and fighting like that, playing that way, it's unbelievable,” Murray said.

"I don't expect to be doing that myself at that age.

“I'm just glad I managed to get through.”

World number one Novak Djokovic and Spanish clay-court specialist Rafael Nadal, a French Open winner on no fewer than nine occasions, both breezed into round two in contrasting fashion to Murray as they each picked up comprehensive wins.

Djokovic, a beaten finalist in three of the past four tournaments at Roland Garros, dispatched Chinese Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu 6-4, 6-1,  6-1, while fourth seed Nadal made light work of Australia’s Sam Groth, claiming a dominant 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 success.

Belgium’s Steve Darcis lies in wait for the formidable Serbian in the next round as the 29-year-old Spaniard prepares to take on Argentina’s Facuno Bagnis.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, seventh seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic also enjoyed comfortable progression with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 triumph over Vasek Pospisil of Canada.

Kerber, seeded third, was the highest profile casualty on day three on the red clay in the French capital as she continued her miserable run of form with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 loss to Bertens.

Defending women's champion Serena Williams cruised through to the next round with a demolition job of Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia as she lost just two games on her way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory.

Serena's sister Venus is safely through after she beat Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 7-6, 7-6, while compatriot and 15th seed Madison Keys overcame Croatia’s Donna Vekić 6-3, 6-2.