French Open 2016: Andy Murray more optimistic than ever of success at Roland Garros

Murray heads into the clay court season off an Australian Open final appearance and his best season on his least-favoured surface in 2015

Andy Murray begins his clay court campaign at the Mote Carlo Masters this week (Getty)

There was a time when the idea of Andy Murray winning the French Open might have seemed as fanciful as the prospect of Leicester City winning the Premier League, but as Claudio Ranieri’s men have demonstrated, the landscape of sport can change quickly.

After enjoying the most successful clay-court season of his career in 2015, Murray is not ruling out anything in the coming weeks. The 28-year-old Scot, who won his first titles on the surface in Munich and Madrid last year before reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garros, opens his clay-court campaign here this week at the Monte Carlo Masters, which is the traditional start to the European outdoor season.

“Last year was definitely my best year on the clay and I think that most years I’ve made some small improvements on it,” Murray said. “I think this year there’s no reason why I can’t have a good clay-court season. I like the surface now. I don’t come into the clay-court season with any fears or worries that I’m going to play badly or I’m not going to be able to move properly. I think I can play well on the clay.”

He added: “I know that it’s possible that I could win the French Open, but I need to play at an extremely high level and there’s no guarantees of me doing that. That’s why it’s up to me to prepare properly, train properly, work hard so I can put myself in a position where I can do that.”

Murray stretched Novak Djokovic in last year’s French Open semi-finals and demonstrated his new-found confidence on clay at the end of the year in the Davis Cup final. Belgium chose to stage the final against Britain on an indoor clay court but Murray won both his singles rubbers in Ghent and also successfully joined forces with his brother Jamie in the doubles.

“Even in the match I lost against Novak [in Paris] I played well,” Murray said. “Then in the Davis Cup final against [David] Goffin I did feel like I played some good tennis in that match. It’s the first time I’ve had good wins on clay against the best players and that obviously helps with the belief.”

Andy Murray speaks to journalists ahead of the Monte Carlo Masters (Getty)

Murray changed his clay-court schedule last year by starting his campaign in a low-key tournament in Munich, where he was able to work on his game and get matches under his belt. He also trained on clay in two different spells at the end of the year in preparation for the Davis Cup final.

“There were a few things on clay last year that I kind of figured out,” he said. “A lot of that actually came from the training I did, and also playing and winning a bunch of matches.”

Murray believes that having had that additional time on clay at the end of last year will help him get into his stride as he switches to the surface again. “It wasn’t such a huge break that I had away from the clay and I feel like I’ve been able to adjust a bit quicker because of that,” he said.

Andy Murray is the current world No 2 despite early elimination in the Miami Open (Getty Images)

It took Murray years to get used to sliding on clay but now he feels he moves much more easily on the surface. “It’s a shame it’s taken a long time for me to start to feel good on that but I did work really hard on it last year, during the training block, when I went to Barcelona, and then before the Davis Cup final,” he said.

“The movement’s obviously different between clay and hard, but it’s just that often I would play nine or 10 months in a row on hard courts before coming into the clay-court season and I was still moving like I was on a hard court, just instinctively. By taking the appropriate time to train and really work on that side of things, it’s a bit more instinctive to move and slide into balls.”

Murray said his fitness team had played a big part in getting his body into shape. “I’ve been doing way more flexibility work than I used to, which has helped,” he said. “It helps if you’ve got loose hips and adductors when you’re moving on the clay, because the sliding is a pretty extreme movement.”

Murray's year got off to a good start in the Davis Cup with Great Britain (Getty Images)

The Scot said that practising gyrotonics – which works on increasing the spine’s natural flexibility – had been a big help. “Since my surgery, it’s given me a lot more range of motion in my back and my hips,” he said. “It’s made a big difference, more to my quality of life, not just on the court. I’m just not in pain all the time.”

Murray could do with a good run here after disappointing in his last two tournaments. Having made a splendid start to the year by reaching the Australian Open final and leading Britain to Davis Cup victory over Japan, Murray lost in the third round at both Indian Wells and Miami, to Federico Delbonis and Grigor Dimitrov respectively.

Grigor Dimitrov celebrates his victory over Andy Murray at the Miami Open (Getty Images)

“It’s very difficult to perform at the highest level every single week,” Murray said. “The loss in Indian Wells was disappointing but more understandable. I wasn’t particularly happy with the way I played in Miami. I definitely could have done better there for sure.

“But the beginning of the year was obviously good. The Australian Open was very good and in Davis Cup I played and won an important match there. Maybe if I’d missed the Davis Cup I would have played better in Indian Wells or Miami, potentially, or maybe not.

“At least I’m fresh. I know that later in the year, when you get to the French Open and then you’ve got Queen’s, Wimbledon, the Davis Cup, the Olympics, the US Open, there are a lot of really big competitions there, so I won’t have overplayed, which is the only positive you can draw from a couple of early losses early in the year. But you need to win matches too and hopefully I can do that at this stage in the season.”