The second Grand Slam tournament of the year is just around the corner. On the men’s side, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal all won big clay court titles and rightfully are the three main contenders for the Roland Garros crown this year. But who is the ultimate favorite in this contest? There are valid and relevant reasons in favor of all three, but Murray’s clay court credentials over the last two seasons are enough for many to believe that this Grand Slam tournament could push him ever closer to the career Grand Slam–a feat that looked distant after back surgery in 2013.
First of all, Murray is 29-3 in clay court matches since the start of the clay court swing in 2015, including the Davis Cup final wins against David Goffin and Ruben Bemelmans. This also groups the wins in Munich and Madrid to capture his first two clay court titles of his career in that short time frame. When analyzing the context of these title wins it’s hard to forget the absolute demolition job Murray put on defending champion Rafael Nadal in Madrid 2015 in the final. Murray would then go on to back it up in the following year’s Mutua Madrid Open by beating who many regard as the “King of Clay” in straight sets 7-5 6-4, in the semifinal stage that time.
In addition to this, Murray would win his first ever title at the Internazionali di Italia Open in Rome last week, by conquering Novak Djokovic in the final. This was of undeniable significance as he became the first British male to ever win this tournament in the Open Era, and also snapped a very glum recent head-to-head with Novak Djokovic, which saw Djokovic win 12 of the last 13 matches against Murray. The only win came in the Canada Masters final of last year, so in terms of increased confidence going into Roland Garros, this match and win against the World #1 Novak Djokovic was of unprecedented importance.
Traditionally clay courts have been Andy Murray’s least favourite surface by quite some distance. Reason to suggest this include Murray totally abandoning the clay court Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 2013 in order to prepare properly for that very Wimbledon in which he would go on to win. This tactic employed by Murray is something that his former coach Ivan Lendl tried to do in order to win the prestigious Wimbledon title in his own day, but failed to do so. So all in all it’s fair to say Murray hasn’t necessarily enjoyed clay growing up, but in 2016 with the numbers he’s producing on this surface it’s also not out of the question that clay is a court surface he’s beginning to enjoy playing on and thriving on. It can be argued that the main reason behind Murray’s renewed and unexpected success on this surface is down to his mindset; whereas before he’d half-heartedly play on the surface, not expecting any major results, he’s now taking the time to address his least-favorite surface and has aimed to get better on it under the tutelage of former coach Amelie Mauresmo. Meanwhile, while he was with Lendl, it was blatantly obvious that the main priority was to win that Wimbledon trophy; now as his career has progressed his priorities have changed naturally. That priority this year would have been to win his first Australian Open trophy, but now he feels he’s in contention to achieve something special in Paris.
What other reasons could further suggest that Andy Murray is the main favorite and contender for this Major trophy? Well, in the past Murray has managed to make three semifinals in Paris on a surface he didn’t like adapting to, now with a rejuvenated mindset he’s a completely different player with a completely different attitude and perspective on the red clay. He’s had some big clay court wins over the last 12 months, including wins over Djokovic, Nadal, Kei Nishikori, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Tomas Berdych, and Roberto Bautista-Agut, amongst many others–and those wins don’t happen out of coincidence. He’s prepared meticulously to his new success on this surface and that previous mindset may have been holding him back slightly. Now more mature and a father for the first time, now he has a different perspective to tennis and to his clay court tennis–a different perspective that could guide him to Roland Garros glory.
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