Murray makes major inroads
But Rafa still the man to fear in France
THE tennis season so far has been one long tale of the unexpected, but perhaps nothing has surprised so much as one statistic.
At the end of last year the notion that, by May, neither Andy Murray nor Novak Djokovic would have made the semi-finals of the Australian Open or a Masters level event would have been laughed out of court.
Yet that has come to pass, every bit as unlikely as Roger Federer winning a Grand Slam in his return tournament or Serena Williams announcing her pregnancy.
How the world’s previously dominant pair get on is one of many questions to be asked as the season enters its most important ten-week phase, encompassing the two big clay court Masters tournaments and two Grand Slams.
It even rivals the fascination of Maria Sharapova’s comeback, and whether she can become airborne fast enough to negate the need for any kind of wildcard into Wimbledon.
Twelve months ago the men’s game looked a shootout between Murray and Djokovic, and so it proved. They faced each other in the Madrid, Rome and Paris finals, with the Serb winning the first and third in that sequence.
Then came the Murray tear, winning at Queen’s, Wimbledon and the Olympics. It was a run that set him on the road to wrenching the number one spot from his rival at the 02 Arena in such dramatic fashion.
Murray did not sound too perturbed this week as he faced up to the extra dimension of pressure that accompanies having major ranking points to defend every time you play, which is the scenario from now on.
‘I feel like physically I am getting back to where I need to be, and that I am able to put in the work I need to be able to play my best tennis, which was a bit of a struggle for me at a few points this year,’ he said.
But the player who will be feared most is Rafael Nadal, injured last year at Roland Garros but now having just won the Monte Carlo Open and Barcelona Open titles for a record tenth time each.
‘Even last year before the injury he was playing well, he won Monte Carlo and Barcelona,’ said Murray.
‘I beat him in semis of Madrid and then he lost in the quarters to Novak in Rome. He would be one of the main favourites I would say for sure.
‘There is no doubt about that, especially with the way he has started the clay season. I think he has also won a lot of his matches comfortably — a lot of them have been fairly straightforward.’
Sharapova will resume her comeback tomorrow with a first round against the Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
ILIE NASTASE has been barred from the French Open. Nastase, Romania’s Fed Cup captain, was provisionally suspended by the ITF after his behaviour during April’s tie against Great Britain.