Andy Murray admits he was lucky he managed to beat the darkness and complete his quarter-final victory over Gael Monfils and believes the lights would be a helpful addition to Roland Garros.

The fifth set of the match started at 21:20 with barely 20 more minutes left before sunset, when play would have had to be suspended.

When the tournament referee, Stefan Fransen, stepped on the court to discuss whether the players wanted to stop playing after the fourth, it appeared Murray wanted to stop and perhaps halt Monfils’ momentum, but the No7 seed explained that wasn’t the case.

“I didn’t want to stop the match either. I asked what the situation was. I was told we had 20 minutes left so you could potentially play a couple of games in that time. Six was the maximum that you could play. I mean, it was so dark.

“Thankfully for me, Gael played a poor fifth set once I got ahead. But I don’t know whether the quality of tennis from him went down because of the darkness or not.”

Asked about lights in the stadium, Murray said: “Obviously from a player’s perspective, in that situation it is better to finish the match than to come back the next day.

“It would obviously be better if you knew when you got on the court when you were going to finish unless obviously it rains. Most of the clay court events, they play night matches and have night sessions in Madrid and Rome. Yeah, (having lights) would help.”

The tournament has made plans to add a roof and floodlights to centre court by 2018. On his part, Monfils says he has no answer to why he played the fifth set so poorly.

“I think I played a good first game. I think it was 15-30. Then everything happened very fast. I missed a few shots, and I don’t know. I don’t really know what happened.”