The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Murray withdraws from French Open
Andy Murray has withdrawn from this year’s French Open. The second grand slam of the year begins today, but after struggling to find his best form on clay recently, the Scot will prioritise a busy grass-court schedule in the build-up to Wimbledon.
Murray was beaten in the first round of the Italian Open and earlier this week made another early exit on clay after losing to Stan Wawrinka at an ATP Challenger event in Bordeaux.
The 36-year-old is understood to still be considering which tournaments to target and they may include Surbiton from June 4-11 and then Queen’s from June 19-25. Wimbledon is scheduled to start on July 3.
Murray had struggled for form on clay after proving he was physically in condition to take on the world’s best players with some marathon matches at
the Australian Open at the start of the year.
The former world No 1, bidding to revive his career after major hip surgery in 2018, came through two five-set victories over Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis before losing to Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round.
Murray beat Tommy Paul in the final of the ATP Challenger event in Aix-enProvence at the start of this month – his first title in nearly four years – after first-round exits in Monte Carlo and Madrid.
But that was followed by his disappointments in the Italian Open in Rome and another Challenger event in Bordeaux.
Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev will overtake Novak Djokovic as world number two after completing his clay-court transformation with victory over Holger Rune to win the Italian Open.
Medvedev had never previously won a match in
Rome and had made clear his dislike of clay but the Russian will be seeded second at Roland Garros and has put himself right in the mix for what could be an open tournament.
Rune is at his best on the surface and had knocked out Djokovic and Casper Ruud to reach the final but Medvedev twice came back from a break down to clinch a 7-5 7-5 victory.
Medvedev claimed the first break of a tight first set in the 12th game and won the final four games of the match after Rune had led 5-3.
Medvedev said: “I always want to believe in myself and I always try to do my best, I want to win the biggest tournaments.
“At the same time, I honestly didn’t believe much I can win a Masters 1000 on clay in my career because usually I hated it, I hated playing on it, nothing was working.
“Before this tournament, already in Madrid and Monte Carlo I was feeling
not too bad. Coming here, I felt amazing in practice. But then you need to play the toughest opponents in the world and I’m really happy that I managed to do it and prove to myself and everybody that I’m capable of doing it.”
Rune will climb to a new career high ranking of six, and the 20-year-old told reporters in the Italian capital: “I think I was very nervous stepping into the match.
“Obviously I came through from a great match yesterday. Maybe I put too many expectations on myself, even though I told myself not to.
“He played great. He played really solid from the back of the court.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s Jack Draper returned from injury with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Alexandre Muller in the first round of the ATP Tour event in Lyon.
Draper has played only one tournament since March because of an abdominal problem.