French Open 2015: Andy Murray leads a British invasion

UK’s fantastic four join Scot in French Open first round after finding their feet on clay

Andy Murray in practice for the French Open (Getty Images)

Not so long ago British players could look as uncomfortable on the clay courts of Roland Garros as a cyclist on the nearby périphérique, but plus ça change – well, actually things don't stay the same. With Andy Murray leading from the front, no fewer than five Britons will be under starter's orders when the French Open gets under way here on Sunday.

If Murray’s two clay-court titles – the first of the Scot’s career – have been the pick of British achievements this spring, the performances of Kyle Edmund and Jo Konta in successfully negotiating the qualifying competition here have been highly commendable.

Until last spring no British man had qualified for the French Open since 1973. Unlike trains on the splendidly efficient Paris metro, however, you wait 41 years for one to come along and then two arrive one after the other. James Ward qualified 12 months ago and Edmund followed suit last week. The 20-year-old did so in impressive style, beating the former Roland Garros quarter-finalist Victor Hanescu and the Spaniard Adrian Menendez-Maceiras for the loss of only eight games.

Konta, who is now based in the land of clay-court scrappers in Spain, also qualified here for the first time. Heather Watson has reached the main draw via the qualifying competition three times but is in the field this time thanks to her world ranking, as is the Slovenian-born Aljaz Bedene, who was granted his British passport this year and will be representing his new country at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Andy Murray practices alongside his coach Amelie Mauresmo (Getty Images)

It would be a surprise, nevertheless, if Murray was not the last Brit standing at the end of the first week. The world No 3 will hope to be going strong come the end of the second week too. For a player who struggled on clay in the past, Murray actually has a decent record here, having twice reached the semi-finals.

This year, moreover, having won all 10 of the matches he has played in the present clay-court campaign, he has hopes of going even further, although the draw has not done him many favours.

Assuming he and others live up to their seedings and world rankings, Murray’s first five opponents will be Argentina’s Facundo Arguello, Portugal’s Joao Sousa, who lost to Thomaz Bellucci in the final of the Geneva Open yesterday, Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who beat Roger Federer on clay this month, the American John Isner, who made the semi-finals in Nice last week, and Spain’s David Ferrer, who has won 12 clay-court titles and is a former French Open runner-up.

If Murray survives, his semi-final opponent could be the winner of a much anticipated showdown between Novak Djokovic, the world No 1 and favourite, and Nadal, who has held aloft the Coupe des Mousquetaires nine times and has lost only one of the 67 matches he has played on these courts. Federer is the top seed in the other half of the draw.

Britain's Johanna Konta has qualified for the French Open (Getty Images)

Murray acknowledges that it would be “very tough” to win the title, despite the confidence he has taken from winning in Munich and Madrid. “Novak is obviously a much better clay-court player than me,” he said. “Rafa is much better on the clay. Roger has had much better success. Ferrer has been to the final here before. I haven’t done that. For me it would be a new experience.”

He added: “A lot of the players have commented on how slow the conditions are. So it’s going to be tough, physical matches if the courts stay like that. Hopefully they’ll get quicker.”

Amélie Mauresmo is in charge of Murray’s preparations here, but with her first baby due in August it remains to be seen what her role will be during the grass-court season.

“It’s going well,” the coach said yesterday. “As long as I can feel good and be around the team in a proper way, and in a good and positive way, I’ll do it. That’s why the week after Roland Garros I will think about it and have medical opinion as to whether I’ll be [joining] the team at Wimbledon or not. Andy and I have said we’ll see, let’s give it time.”

Jonas Bjorkman, who joined Murray’s coaching team last month, is not here but will be with the Scot for the whole grass-court season and beyond. Murray believes he has already benefited from the former world No 4’s advice.

“There are things in his game which I felt like I used to do and maybe got a little bit away from,” Murray said. “He used to be very aggressive on the second-serve return. Just before I started with Jonas and when I was speaking to him, I was saying to him that was something I wanted to get back into doing, putting pressure on my opponents – which I’ve done very well on the clay and [on hard courts] in Miami.

“He was pretty competent up at the net. Something I want to continue to learn about is when to come to the net and where to volley when you are. Because you can hit loads of volleys, but it’s important to know where your opponent is on the court and make the right decision: when you come forward, what volleys to hit, when to go back in behind them, when to hit into the open space, when to use the drop volley.”

Murray alongside coach Mauresmo (GETTY IMAGES)

Bjorkman has also talked to Murray about adopting tactics that Tim Henman used on clay to such good effect here 11 years ago, when the former British No 1 reached the semi-finals.

“On the clay Jonas always preferred to play guys that loved playing on clay,” Murray said. “Tim was the same. He used to love coming into the net or drop-shotting or coming in behind the drop shots, using the short slice, and just playing a different game style which they found difficult to deal with.”

Watson, who plays France’s Mathilde Johansson in her opening match tomorrow, is taking a similar approach. “On clay I think it’s actually most important to be aggressive,” she said. “People fall into a trap of thinking, ‘It’s a slow surface, so I’m just going to make balls’. But I think it’s the opposite and you need to continue playing aggressively.”

Andy Murray's record at the French Open

2006: First round - Lost to Gael Monfils

2007: Did not play (injured)

2008: Third round - Lost to Nicolas Almagro

2009: Quarter-finals - Lost to Fernando Gonzalez

2010: Fourth round - Lost to Tomas Berdych

2011: Semi-finals - Lost to Rafael Nadal

2012: Quarter-finals - Lost to David Ferrer

2013: Did not play (injured)

2014: Semi-finals - Lost to Rafael Nadal