ANDY OUT TO BREAK HEARTS IN PARIS
IT IS Andy Murray who ought to be anxious today about playing in the quarter-finals against the last remaining Frenchman at Roland Garros. Yet given the Scot’s remarkable record against home players at their own Grand Slam it might be Richard Gasquet who steps out on to Court Philippe Chatrier this afternoon with trepidation. For Murray has won his 14 matches in such circumstances at the majors, and has only lost one of these — 10 years ago against Gael Monfils at this venue. The wider question is whether they get to play at all, with the local weather threatening to play havoc with the rest of the event and the potential for it to go into a third Monday. Play was completely abandoned at lunchtime yesterday for the first time in 16 years. Murray, though, remains ready for what may be in store from one of the most partisan crowds in the sport. ‘I don’t mind it when the crowd is against me. Most of the time I have handled that pretty well,’ he said. ‘I need to beat Richard, I am not playing against the crowd. I need to go out there with a good game plan and it is about being able to execute it under extreme pressure in an extreme atmosphere. ‘I prefer it when the crowd is on my side but I don’t hate it when they are against me. If there was nobody there it could easily be a bit flat.’ Murray has an 7-3 record against Gasquet, and both players will be aware that twice in Grand Slams he has come back from two sets down to beat him. Once was in Paris six years ago and the other was at Wimbledon 2008, where a 21-year-old Murray famously rolled up his sleeve after winning the match and flexed his biceps at his support box. ‘It was long ago but it was a very important match for me,’ he recalled. ‘When I first came on the tour, I was not strong enough physically. I was 18 years old and had never played against any of the top players. I had never played five sets until that first Wimbledon where I struggled. ‘So I dedicated myself to getting physically stronger and working harder. ‘That has helped me in a couple of matches I have played against him since then. He knows I am always going to be fighting against him until the very end.’ A lack of mental fortitude has been a problem for the supremely talented Gasquet through his career, although he will be more dangerous this time. He has beaten Nick Kyrgios and Kei Nishikori to get to this point and is being coached here by Sergi Bruguera, twice a Roland Garros champion in the 1990s, and possibly a man to add some more backbone.