TENNIS FRENCH OPEN: ANDY MURRAY began his third French Open campaign, having missed the tournament in 2007 when he badly injured his wrist in Germany, without having to extend himself beyond the routine complexities that clay presents.
Murray is learning day by day, match by match, year by year and is confident it will not be long before he is able to mount a concerted challenge for this title.
His 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, a former quarter-finalist at Roland Garros, underlined both his progress on the surface and the nature of his rise towards the top of the game in the last 12 months.
The French introduced a Sunday start to the French Open two years ago, principally to squeeze in an extra day of television revenue, though none of the other major championships has followed suit. At first there was reluctance among the public to get themselves to the Bois de Boulogne for a morning start, though the crowds were good yesterday. Murray, the world number three, was the fourth on Court Suzanne Lenglen, beginning the match in what will become his accustomed tea-time spot at Wimbledon in four weeks’ time.
Chela, who suffered a herniated disc last year and missed eight months from the end of the French Open to this February, has been struggling to find any sort of form and Murray made sure he extended him physically from the start, despite losing his opening service game. The first three games lasted 17 minutes, Murray establishing a 2-1 lead, and halfway through the opening set the Argentinian was clearly struggling physically in the heat.
Murray, by comparison, was playing well within himself, other than having to improvise a few squash shots when Chela forced him wide on the forehand. A running smash brought large applause from a crowd who were clearly enjoying Murray’s greater variety and touch. Chela, who won their first ever meeting in the first round of the 2006 Australian Open but has now lost the last four, has a solid, uncomplicated style and can jolt his opponents with the power of his ground strokes, even though he is generally undone by the top players.
Murray, who will next play Mischa Zverev of Germany or Italy’s Potito Starace who meet today, is now very much part of that category, even on clay. He won the first set in 38 minutes and then headed for the line with an ease born of complete confidence – a drop shot here, a winning volley there and a beautifully executed lob that soared with the pigeons to fall inside the baseline with absolute precision. Of course, there were missed opportunities but Murray could afford himself the luxury of occasional over-elaboration or misdirected counters. It was pretty much the perfect start, with minimum energy expended.
The same could not be said for Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, the former Wimbledon and US Open champion, who came back from two sets down against Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic, the Eiffel Tower of tennis, who had famously knocked Hewitt out in the first round of Wimbledon the year after he won the title in 2002.
Karlovic, 6ft 10in in his socks, served no fewer than 55 aces, the highest number since the ATP began keeping a record of such things in 1991, though the all-comers highest count appears to be 59, set by Ed Kauder of the US at the US championships at Forest Hills in 1955. And how did Hewitt win under such a barrage? “Don’t know,” was his honest answer.
Meanwhile, when Ana Ivanovic won her first grand slam title here last year, defeating in the final the current world number one, Dinara Safina of Russia, it appeared that it would be the precursor to many more. Since then, though, the Serb has failed to progress beyond the third round of the three slams and has won only one title, slipping down the rankings from the pinnacle to number eight.
Various setbacks, including a thumb injury last year and now a sore right knee, have sapped her confidence and so far Craig Kardon, her new American coach who made his name with Martina Navratilova, has not had a huge impact. Ball toss remains awry and although her forehand blazes from time to time it lacks consistency: she might easily have lost the opening set to Italy’s Sara Errani before coming through 7-6, 6-3.
It was a far from convincing prologue to her defence as the start of the women’s tournament. A reasonable crowd settled down for what they expected to be a gentle beginning. Errani had other ideas, scurrying around with a fervour that soon had Ivanovic flailing.
Seeded to meet Safina in the quarter-finals, the Serb will need to seriously raise her game if she is to retain her title.
Guardian Service
