Performance on clay is key to Murray progress, says coach

A handful of autograph-hunters waited for Andy Murray to finish his Court Four work-out in preparation for tomorrow's first day of the French Open, only to walk straight past the Scot and head for a 34-year-old Spaniard who had been watching from the sidelines. Alex Corretja, who has joined the world No 11's coaching team, played 49 matches at Roland Garros – 48 more than Murray – and was twice a finalist here.

Corretja has been more than satisfied with his charge's progress. Murray had won only two matches in his previous two clay-court seasons, but five victories this year have been evidence of his improvement.

Murray believes a realistic target will be to make the second week here, though yesterday's draw could have been kinder. If he beats the French wild card Jonathan Eysseric in the first round, Murray's probable next opponents are all clay-court specialists: Jose Acasuso (world No 50), Nicolas Almagro (20), David Nalbandian (7) and Rafael Nadal (2). Eysseric, a 17-year-old left-hander, is a former world junior No 1 and was picked out by Roger Federer as a practice partner last year.

"Andy's been improving a lot with his slice and his movement, playing with a lot more top-spin and high balls, and also being more aggressive with his backhand," Corretja said. "He's been doing great things and I've been happy so far. He takes things on very easily. You tell him something and all of a sudden he knows how to do it.

"At the start of the clay-court season he was outside the top 20. Now he's back close to where he wants to be, in the top 10, and the grass-court season is going to be very important for him.

"The results and the rankings aren't the end of the story. The goal is to make him feel able to play on clay. He needs to play more on clay. This is the first year that he has been able to play a little bit. He's proved he can, but the clay-court season is so short. It would be good for him to win a few matches here as he'll then enter the grass-court season feeling he is playing well."

Does Corretja believe Federer or Novak Djokovic can end Rafael Nadal's three-year reign as champion? "Of course they have a chance, but it's up to the boss," he said. "If he's OK then it's going to be extremely difficult for anyone to stop Rafa. He makes you play with so much intensity throughout the whole match. He's a lefty, so the angles are a bit different. He puts a lot of balls in the court.

"He's getting much more aggressive. It's very difficult to know how to win a point against him as he reaches a lot of balls. He's serving better, he's more aggressive with his forehand, he's playing better with his forehand down the line. He mixes it up with his backhand, sometimes goes deeper and sometimes brings it up short. It's becoming almost impossible to beat him on clay."

Murray agrees that Nadal is the favourite and recently noticed one of the keys to the Spaniard's game. "He's the only player on the tour right now who can slide with their right and left legs," Murray said. "When he goes out to his backhand, he slides on his right leg; when he goes to his forehand, he slides on his left leg. That makes it so much easier to recover and much easier to get to the ball. It's a really tough thing to do. You watch Federer, Djokovic and myself. We tend to slide on just one leg, but he can do it on both. It's not just about that, of course. His forehand is probably the toughest shot in tennis on clay."

Justine Henin would have been favourite to win the women's event but her retirement last week ended that hope. Maria Sharapova has taken over as world No 1 and was the main beneficiary of yesterday's draw. Three fellow Russians, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Anna Chakvetadze, are the highest other seeds in her section of the draw, while the bottom half has the potential for two enthralling quarter-finals between Serbs and the Williams sisters. Ana Ivanovic is seeded to meet Serena, while Jelena Jankovic could play Venus.