French Open draw: Andy Murray tasked with qualifier first - but is set to face Stanislas Wawrinka in the semi-final

The Scot is in the same half of the draw as reigning champion Wawrinka

Andy Murray looks at the Rome Masters trophy he won last week (Getty)

When you are about to compete with the best, there is often no substitute for training with the best. Two days before the start of the French Open, Andy Murray practised here today with Rafael Nadal, nine times a champion at Roland Garros.

“It was a very good practice,” Murray said. “The last few days it’s been tough. The first day I got here, on Wednesday, the conditions weren’t nice to practise in. I practised with [David] Goffin and we had to stop after an hour and 15 because it had been raining pretty much the whole practice. The groundsmen were not happy with us sort of ruining the court. Then when I practised yesterday with Feli Lopez it was again very, very, cold, windy conditions.”

While some of the top players rarely practise with each other, especially before the bigger tournaments, Murray often trains with Nadal and Novak Djokovic. “They normally beat me so maybe they’re a bit happier to practise with me,” Murray said with a smile.

“I have hit with them over the years a lot, especially before the big events or at the beginning of the year. You don’t actually learn loads about their game when you’re practising with them, but it’s great practice. Why not get the best practice possible before big events?

“The intensity is obviously high when you’re playing against the best players. You want to practise well. There’s a little bit more incentive there in the practice. I think it helps me.”

The draw for the tournament was made in the morning, but it was not until late in the day that Murray learned the identity of his first-round opponent after being paired with a qualifier. On Monday he will face Radek Stepanek, the 37-year-old Czech veteran, who pushed him hard in the Madrid Masters earlier this month.

Murray, who went on to lose to Djokovic in the final in the Spanish capital, was outplayed in the second set as the world No 129, an old-fashioned stylist who still hits some of the best volleys in the game, kept charging the net. Nevertheless, Murray recovered to win the final set 6-1.

Although Murray beat Stepanek on his Wimbledon debut in 2005 – at the time the 18-year-old Scot was world No 312 and his opponent was world No 13 – he has lost twice to the Czech. Stepanek beat him at the Paris Masters indoor event in 2009 and knocked him out of the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club in 2014.

Provided Murray clears his first hurdle he could meet another qualifier, Spain’s Jordi Samper-Montana, in the second round. The world No 216 faces a first-round meeting with France’s Mathias Bourgue, the world No 165, who is playing thanks to a wild card.


 Stanislas Wawrinka won the French Open last year 
 (Getty)

Thereafter Murray could be on a collision course with Ivo Karlovic and John Isner, two of the most powerful servers in the game, in the third and fourth rounds. The Scot is then seeded to face Kei Nishikori in the quarter-finals. Nishikori has had a very good clay-court season so far but has won only one of his seven meetings with the Scot.

Stan Wawrinka is a potential semi-final opponent for Murray. The 31-year-old Swiss, who is the defending champion, has a good record against Murray, having won seven of their 15 meetings. In their matches at Grand Slam events Wawrinka has beaten Murray twice at the US Open, while the Scot has beaten the Swiss once in New York and once at Wimbledon.

Wawrinka has not been in the best of form so far in the clay-court season, while Murray has had an exceptional run. He reached the semi-finals in Monte Carlo, where he was beaten by Nadal, and then played in successive finals in Madrid and Rome against Djokovic. Having lost in the former, Murray won in the latter last weekend. He has made the semi-finals here three times, having lost to Nadal in 2011 and 2014 and to Djokovic in 2015.

Following his split with Amelie Mauresmo, Murray is being coached here by his fellow Briton, Jamie Delgado, who joined his entourage earlier this year.

Asked if there was a possibility that Delgado might stay in charge of his coaching in the long term, Murray said: “For sure that’s possible. I’m always looking to improve, so if there is something that I feel could help me, then for sure I would look into that in terms of another person to help out, and also to give Jamie a break from time to time. Travelling every single week during the year and every practice week is tough and this is the beginning of our relationship just now.

“Normally over time, when you spend so much time with each other, having a little bit of separation can be good too. But I enjoy working with him. I obviously know him very well. We get on well away from the court. He's a very good people person. He communicates very well with everyone. He gets on well with my whole team. I find it very easy to chat to him.

“He's pretty calm, relaxed. He's a relaxed guy. On top of that he’s very, very experienced around the tour. He played, whatever it was, 23 or 25 Wimbledons in a row, so he's been around the game a long, long time. He's a good coach. I enjoy working with him and he had good results too with Gilles Muller.”

Djokovic is the No 1 seed and is in the other half of the draw along with Nadal, who faces potentially tricky encounters in the third and fourth rounds against Fabio Fognini and Dominic Thiem. Djokovic looks to have an easier passage in the early stages but could meet Tomas Berdych or David Ferrer in the quarter-finals. Djokovic and Nadal are seeded to meet in the semi-finals.

The two other British men in the main draw, Aljaz Bedene and Kyle Edmund, both play qualifiers in the first round. Bedene, who could face Djokovic in the third round, meets Austria’s Gerald Melzer, the world No 130, who has never played in the main draw here.

Edmund faces Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round, with the winner to meet either John Isner, the No 15 seed, or John Millman.