This time last year, Andy Murray arrived in Rome having reached the final of the Madrid Masters, and was about to go all the way to the title at the Foro Italico for the first time.
It was to be the start of the best season of his career, and he would lose just three more matches, one in the final of the French Open, before he swept to titles at Queen’s, Wimbledon, the Olympics, Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, Paris and the World Tour Finals. It all earned him the No1 ranking.
It would be small wonder, then, if Murray’s physical and mental resources were depleted by his extraordinary efforts, and sure enough, 2017 has proved to be a real contrast.
His fourth-round loss at the Australian Open looked like a mere blip in proceedings, having reached the Doha final before then winning in Dubai. And it could be explained away by the revelation that he had contracted shingles after Melbourne, though he told the assembled media in Dubai that the illness was now behind him.
But come Indian Wells, Murray lost his opener against Vasek Pospisil, ranked 129, and then missed the Miami Masters due to an elbow injury.
Even so, his loss to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in Monte-Carlo was unexpected, even if his semi loss to the ever-improving Dominic Thiem in Barcelona was not.
In Madrid, and then Rome, it was the nature of his losses—for just one win through the fortnight—that surprised: Murray seemed to lack energy and focus, and his comments after the Madrid loss to Borna Coric were equally lack-lustre:
“I didn’t help myself sort of find a way into the match to start playing better. That was disappointing because, you know, you’re not always going to play your best tennis, but you can still find ways to make it difficult for your opponent, and I didn’t do that at all today.”
And after Rome, albeit a loss to an on-fire Fabio Fognini, Murray was again at a loss to explain his 6-2, 6-4 loss to the BBC:
“I’m just not playing good tennis and need to try to work out how to turn it around. I believe I will. The last couple of weeks have definitely been a struggle and a long way from where I’d like to be. There is no reason for it from my end.”
As if to rub salt into the wound, the world No1’s preparation for the French Open this week has been hindered by another health issue.
“I was supposed to practise on Monday. Sunday afternoon was when I started to feel a bit sick. Monday/Tuesday didn’t feel great, but I still practised a bit on Tuesday. [But] I feel much better now. I’ve just got a cough, but I was just a bit sick for a couple of days.”
Those who have suffered from shingles and its after effects know that the virus can linger after the external symptoms have gone. Reason, then, to wonder whether he should have considered more rest than the fortnight or so he allowed himself in the off season. But he would brook no such suggestion.
“I have [rested] this year a couple of times. I took two weeks off after Australia. I took two weeks off at the end of last season where I did nothing. When I got back from Miami, when I had the issue with my elbow, I didn’t hit any balls, didn’t do much gym work for 10 days, two weeks. I have got much better at that during my career, better than maybe in my mid 20s at doing that.
“But right now, I don’t need to rest. I don’t feel like I need to rest. I have not played many matches recently… Ideally you want to play a lot of matches, but if you’re not getting matches, you need to practise.”
He has been true to his word, and on the day he faced the media, he had already practised for three hours and, not long after, was out on court again. He has, as fans and colleagues know all too well, never been shy of hard work.
To manage the rigours of the kind of tennis demanded by clay, via up to seven rounds and up to five sets at a time, Murray will need to be in top shape, and his corner is at least boosted by having Ivan Lendl alongside him.
The draw has not been too kind, either, though his first match—not scheduled before Monday at the earliest—is against current Geneva semi-finalist Andrey Kuznetsov. But looking ahead, he could meet Juan Martin del Potro in the third round—if the big Argentine is fully fit. Both their meetings last year were close affairs—four sets in the Olympic final to Murray and five sets in the Davis Cup semi-finals.
The fourth round is likely to bring John Isner or Tomas Berdych, and the quarters contain the in-form Rome champion Alexander Zverev or Kei Nishikori. And all that before a potential semi against 2015 French Open champion Stan Wawrinka.
Yet Murray remains bullishly upbeat.
“I need to accept that I’m struggling and then find a way to get through it. I will get through it, I’m sure of that. When that happens, I don’t know. Hopefully it happens in a few days. Hopefully happens at this event. If it doesn’t, maybe it happens during the grass. But the only way to get through it is to keep working on your game.”
How other British men line up
Murray is joined in the men’s draw by three other Brits. Kyle Edmund, ranked 50, is in the Wawrinka quarter and could meet Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round and Nick Kyrgios in the third, with Marin Cilic and David Ferrer lined up for the quarters.
No52 Aljaz Bedene and No55 Dan Evans are both in Nadal’s quarter. The former faces Ryan Harrison followed by Jack Sock, with Roberto Bautista Agut a likely third-round opponent. Evans opens against fellow one-hander, the veteran Tommy Robredo, and in the second round his first seed may also be a one-hander, No11 seed Grigor Dimitrov.
Konta goes solo for British women
Roland Garros has not been a happy hunting ground for Johanna Konta in her two previous main draw appearances: first-round exits both.
But clay continues to be a challenge for the woman whose big wins—including the Miami Premier Mandatory this year—have largely come on hard courts. This year, she arrives with little time on the red stuff having lost in the second round at Stuttgart and Rome and the first round at Madrid. Even opting into doubles in Madrid was a short-lived affair.
Yet Konta, who made some big coaching changes at the end of last year, remains upbeat, searching for the positives in Paris even if she does not make a deep run.
Here as the No7 seed, she told the media today:
“Part of the challenge is the time I spend on this surface compared to the other ones. It’s not just that I haven’t played much on the clay. It’s the level of players that I’m playing on the surface.
“However, for me personally as a game style, I think it’s more of an adaptation process of just noticing how, for example, on the hard, the movement side of it… is slightly more straightforward than it is on the clay. So I just need to keep adapting movement-wise around the ball, and then also being patient enough to build the points.
“The work that I’m putting in now also I believe will transfer into the grass and also the hard and throughout the few seasons that I have.”
Her first opponent is Su-Wei Hsieh, ranked 109: This will be their first meeting on clay. Then comes Taylor Townsend, with the first seed being No28 Caroline Garcia, who beat Konta in Indian Wells this year—though the in-form Kristyna Pliskova, may be the survivor here.
The fourth round promises No20 Barbora Strycova, a more likely survivor than Agnieszka Radwanska, who has carried an ankle problem through the spring.
Konta is in the quarter of second seed, Karolina Pliskova, another woman like Konta who thrives on hard rather than clay courts.
Fellow Briton Heather Watson failed to make the main draw at a Major for the first time in six years, falling in a painful third-round of qualifying, 6-0, 6-3, after taking a long medical time-out for hip and lower back treatment at 6-0, 3-0 down.
Naomi Broady and Tara Moore both lost in the first round of qualifying