It’s little more than a week since Andy Murray’s French Open challenge came to a devastating end at the hands of an ever-brilliant Nadal but already the clay court season kind of feels like a distant memory.
In some ways this year’s Roland Garros was a great tournament for Murray, who equalled his best ever performance in Paris by reaching the semi-finals. But it was the manner of the defeat to Nadal that in many people’s eyes served to overshadow his great achievement of reaching the last four. This wasn’t just a defeat, it was a comprehensive drubbing – and although Andy must have been pleased to have reached the last four he was clearly looking to go all the way.
For all the significant progress Murray has made on clay it is still the surface he is least effective on – and he certainly has made progress. I was lucky enough to visit Roland Garros this year and watch Andy play in his first round match against Andrey Golubev, where I left the court with the definite impression that he was moving better than ever on this surface. But ultimately it would appear that he still has some way to go if he wants to truly conquer the clay and one day win in Paris. With Nadal around that could prove to be a tall order, but then Andy has made a habit of proving people wrong in his career, so who knows?
It’s not just Andy who isn’t exactly what you’d call best friends with the red stuff. British players have traditionally struggled at Roland Garros, however this year there were several highly notable achievements. Perhaps leading that list is James Ward, who became the first British man in more than 40 years to qualify for the second Grand Slam of the year. That his progress was halted in the first round of the main tournament was perhaps no surprise having been drawn against the experienced Tommy Robredo, a player who has reached the French Open quarterfinals on five previous occasions – but even so it was a great performance for James having come through three rounds of qualifying. He has very much proved his clay court credentials this year, most famously playing a crucial role in helping Great Britain to victory over the USA in the Davis Cup in February.
On the women’s side Heather Watson successfully came through qualifying and put in a good performance to triumph in her opening main-draw match against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic. Heather also battled hard against Simona Halep in the second round, however the Romanian star ultimately proved too strong for the young Brit. The signs for Heather are good though and I’m confident that she can have some success at the All England Club.
With Wimbledon now only just over a week away the attention is very much focused on Andy Murray and the defence of his title. I’m sure he is glad to have left the red clay behind and is looking forward to stepping back onto the grass of Wimbledon, which by contrast is arguably his best surface. Should fate dictate that this year’s Wimbledon sees a Murray v Nadal rematch then I think it will be an entirely different match to what we saw in Paris. I can’t wait!
By Daniel Flower