Andy Murray has publicly stated that British tennis as a whole should aim higher than having only three players progressing through into the second round of the French Open, just hours after Kyle Edmund and Heather Watson joined him in round two of the Grand Slam tournament.
Both he and his female counterpart, Heather Watson, won their respective matches in straight-sets, whilst Kyle Edmund survived a nervy finish to beat France's Stephane Robert in his match-up. It is the first time since 2011 that three British players have progressed into the second round of the competition, but Murray was eager to maintain the fact that the nation as a whole should aim higher and take that stat into perspective for the future.
He stated: "It depends on what is 'doing well'. Winning a couple of rounds at a French Open for us, for the UK, is good but, France or Spain or the Argentinians, I don't think they look at it and would be very impressed by that. A lot of the other nations have multiple players going deep into the Grand Slams and ultimately that's where you want to try to get to. Tennis in the UK is obviously a big sport, there's a lot of money invested in it, so you want to try to get as much depth as possible. For us it's great, but I don't think the other countries are looking at it and saying, 'I think it's great you have two or three players in the second round of a Grand Slam'.
It's obviously good that Heather has won. It's obviously nice - the more British players in the tournament, the better."