Murray survives rain

The Scot finally ended the Argentine's defence at 9pm on Thursday night, more than 24 hours after the clash had started.

Murray will next meet number 25 seed Marcos Baghdatis after the Cypriot completed a 4-6 6-1 7-5 6-2 win over Marcel Granollers of Spain.

Murray had looked firmly in control when he returned to the court leading Chela 6-2 3-3 after bad light had forced the abandonment of the match the previous evening.

The rest of the match was a stop-start affair as persistent rain in Paris forced the suspension of play on another two occasions, the first time after just one game had been played.

It was Chela who seemed to deal better with the interruptions and heavy conditions as Murray's frustration became increasingly apparent during an 80-minute second set.

And it was the Argentine, who had lost the previous 13 consecutive sets between the pair, who came out on top, holding his nerve in the tie-break to level up at one set apiece.

Another rain delay later and Murray, who had to recover from two sets to love down against Richard Gasquet in the first round, found himself an early break down in the third set as Chela unleashed a series of ferocious ground-strokes.

But the fourth seed quickly recovered his composure, breaking back in the very next game when Chela drilled a backhand wide across court.

From there it was mainly one-way traffic as Murray broke again two games later before sealing the set when a tiring Chela dumped a forehand into the net.

Murray rammed home his advantage early in the fourth set, breaking in the first game by racing up to a shorter ball from Chela and firing a forehand winner down the line.

Chela produced a period of resistance as he doggedly remained just one break down for most of the remainder of the set.

But eventually Murray was able to make his superior ranking tell, breaking for a second time in the eighth game with another forehand winner down the line after running around the ball.

A first match point went begging for the Scot when he hit long, but he wrapped things up on his second chance with a whipped backhand across court.