Andy Murray among the favourites to win French Open after learning clay court lessons

The Scot has been excellent this year on what used to be his least favoured surface

Andy Murray after winning the Rome Masters (Getty)

It may not quite be the time to start calling him the new king of clay, but the transformation in Andy Murray’s game on what had always been his most challenging surface has been remarkable. It may also be true that it is not possible to teach an old dog new tricks, but as Murray enters his 30th year it is clear that the clay-court lessons he has learned from a succession of coaches over the years have finally sunk in.

Murray, who celebrated his 29th birthday on the day of his victory over Novak Djokovic in the final of the Rome Masters on Sunday, has always taken his clay-court tennis seriously. Several years ago he even brought a specialist Spanish coach, Alex Corretja, into his team to help with his development on the surface.

The rewards of all Murray’s hard work on clay have come in the last two years. In 2015 he won the first clay-court titles of his career in Munich and Madrid and was unbeaten on clay when he went into the French Open, where he reached the semi-finals.

Murray has built on that success with even better performances this year. In the season’s three clay-court Masters Series events he reached the semi-finals in Monte Carlo, where he lost to Rafael Nadal, made the final in Madrid before losing to Djokovic and on Sunday became the first British man for 85 years to win the title in Rome. When this year’s French Open starts in six days’ time Murray will be among the favourites.

In the current European outdoor clay-court season the only man who has earned more ranking points than Murray has been Nadal, who tops that particular list because he played an additional tournament in Barcelona.

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Nadal, who came close to achieving the all-but-impossible task of replacing Stan Wawrinka at No 4 in the world rankings in time for the French Open, has earned 2,040 ranking points on European clay this spring compared with Murray’s 1,960. The only other top 10 men who have earned more than 1,000 ranking points over the same period are Djokovic (1,610) and Kei Nishikori (1,020).

“I've played well on all of the surfaces, but in the last couple of years clay has probably been my most successful surface, which, I never, never expected to be the case,” Murray said.

“Maybe I didn't believe enough in myself. I always thought clay was my worst and hardest surface, but then last year, getting some wins against the best players made me realise things a little bit more. My coaches had said to me that clay should really be my best surface, but it took me a long time to gain a little bit of confidence.

“But also I did make huge improvements in my movement on the surface as well. That has changed my mentality a lot when I go on the court. I don't feel like I'm off-balance any more and I feel like I can chase most balls down. It’s an easy surface for me to move on now.

“My back also feels way, way better than it did a few years ago. I have to thank my team for that for all the hard work that they have put in and the changes they made to my training programme to help me with that.”

Andy Murray in action in the Rome Masters final (Getty)

Murray, who returned to No 2 in the world rankings on Monday ahead of Roger Federer, believes that improvements to his second serve have been a particularly important factor in his success on clay this year. There have been times in the past when opponents have targeted his second serve, but he is now hitting the ball harder and more consistently.

“The serve wasn’t a problem in any of the matches that I played [in Rome],” Murray said. “It was the same in Madrid. I served extremely well, and it gives me a lot of confidence in my game. When I'm serving well, I feel like most matches I create opportunities to break serve. So if I'm holding my serve comfortably and not dropping serve much, it makes a big difference to the rest of my game.”

Sunday’s victory was Murray’s first tournament victory as a father. “It’s been a big change in my life,” he said. “I’m very, very positive about that. I think that it's going to have a positive effect on my tennis and the rest of my career. It gives me a bit of extra motivation, something more to play for.

“The last thing I looked at before I went on court [in the final] was a picture of my daughter. I feel like that's what I'm playing for now so that, in a few years hopefully, she can be proud of what I have achieved.”

Andy Murray celebrates his victory over Goffin (Getty)

And so to the French Open, which is the only Grand Slam event where Murray has not reached the final. “I’ll be going to Roland Garros with a lot of confidence,” he said. “The conditions are slightly different there. The matches are also over the best of five sets, which takes a little bit more physical and mental strength, but I feel like I'm on the right track.”

He added: “I’ve had great preparation now going into the French Open, with a lot of matches. I’ve played against Rafa a couple of times, Novak a couple of times. I haven’t won all of the matches, but I competed extremely well even in the ones I have lost.”

RANKING POINTS WON SO FAR IN THE EUROPEAN CLAY-COURT SEASON BY THE WORLD’S TOP TEN

Rafael Nadal 2,040 (4 tournaments played)

Andy Murray 1,960 (3)

Novak Djokovic 1,610 (3)

Kei Nishikori 1,020 (3)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 450 (2)

Milos Raonic 405 (3)

Tomas Berdych 280 (3)

Stan Wawrinka 280 (3)

Roger Federer 270 (2)

Richard Gasquet 225 (3)