No French connection to Murray’s hot streak
ANDY MURRAY puts his excellent record against French players down as a coincidence as he prepares to put it to the test today against Jeremy Chardy in the Roland Garros fourth round.
Since losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga back in the 2008 Australian Open, the 28-year-old has racked up 22 straight Grand Slam wins against Frenchmen.
“I think it’s a coincidence,” Murray said. “Some of the guys I’ve played against, their styles have matched up well for me.
“I’ve also lost quite a few of them as well, and against Richard Gasquet I was down a couple of sets a few times and managed to turn the match around.”
The Scot, who has lost a couple of tour matches to French opponents since inviting Amelie Mauresmo onto his coaching team, knows taking on the World No.45 in front of a partisan Parisian crowd will present a challenge. But he also usually tends to thrive in the lion’s den.
“I don’t mind playing in those kinds of atmospheres,” said the World No.3.
“Obviously I prefer it when the crowd is behind you but it’s something that you have to enjoy, it’s a challenge and when you accept it’s going to be the case before a match, you deal with it.
“I try to tell myself when they’re booing me they’re booing him [his opponent]. I think in football the crowd obviously get pumped when the home team is attacking whereas in tennis it’s kind of no noise in the middle of the rallies so it shouldn’t put you off. I try to draw on it.
“The way I handle it is I talk about it and prepare for it and then when I’m on the court I just get on with it.”
WHILE the rain fell at Roland Garros, the temperature was rising ahead of this fourth-round match-up.
Chardy said he was still “hacked off” about the aftermath of the last meeting between the two players, at the Rome Masters a fortnight ago, when Murray won 6-4, 6-3, then pulled out of the tournament afterwards, claiming tiredness.
The Frenchman said he would learn the lessons from that match, and said the presence of Mauresmo in Murray’s corner would do nothing to prevent him being home favourite.
“I played a good match, but still I lost 4 and 3,” said Chardy. “Then after he beat me, he pulled out from Rome to be fresh for Roland Garros, so I think for him this is a big goal. It will be a really tough match. In the past we always say Andy doesn’t like to play on clay court, but now I think everybody has changed.
“Andy is one of the best players, especially at the moment. So if I am to have a chance to win, I have to play my best tennis against him.
“Amélie has done a really great job with Andy. But the support will be for me, anyway, because Amélie has stopped playing now.
As if the stakes needed to be upped any further with a quarter-final berth on the line, Chardy risked fuelling Murray’s wrath by mistakenly referring to the Glasgow-born Scot as English, saying: “It is a guy from England against a French guy, so I hope the crowd will be 100 per cent for me.”