The top seed for the Men’s tournament at the French Open this year is Andy Murray, though he does not go in as the favorite following a generally disappointing season so far.
The Brit, who will face Andrey Kuznetsov in the opening round, will be looking to defend his finalist points from last year as he aims to stay at the top of the rankings.
Early 2017 results
Murray started the season fairly well, beating the likes of Tomas Berdych before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final in Doha, though he then suffered a surprise loss to Mischa Zverev in the fourth round at the Australian Open.
The Brit rebounded from his disappointment in Melbourne, taking his first ATP title of the year in Dubai, beating the likes of Philipp Kohlschreiber (who he saved seven match points against) and Lucas Pouille, before beating Fernando Verdasco in the final. However, Murray was then the victim of a huge upset in Indian Wells as he fell in his opening match to Vasek Pospisil, and then was forced to withdraw from Miami with an elbow issue.
On Clay in 2017
After a month out due to his elbow injury, Murray made his clay court debut in Monte Carlo, beating Gilles Muller in his first match before losing a 4-0 lead in the final set to lose to Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the third round.
Things picked up a bit for the Brit in Barcelona the following week, where he managed to reach the semifinals, though he suffered his first ever defeat to Dominic Thiem in their last four encounter. After that, he had poor showings at both the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, losing to Borna Coric in his second match in Madrid and to Fabio Fognini in his first match in Rome; both losses were in straight sets, and, worryingly for the Brit, he has not looked in great shape in practice warm ups in Paris this week.
Best French Open result
Murray’s best ever result in Paris came last year, as he reached the final. The Brit was also a semifinalist in 2011, 2014, and 2015.
The world number one had an extremely tough start at the tournament last year, having to come from two sets down to beat Radek Stepanek in the opening round, and was then forced to come from two sets to one down against Mathias Bourgue, though eventually prevailed in both matches. Following that, two simple straight sets wins over 27th seed Ivo Karlovic and 15th seed John Isner saw him reach the last eight.
In the quarterfinals, Murray faced a second Frenchman, ninth seed Richard Gasquet. Though he nearly fell two sets down, the Brit eventually won in four sets to reach his third consecutive semifinal, where he put in a very strong performance to beat defending champion Stan Wawrinka and make his first final.
Though he won the first set, Murray eventually fell in four sets to Novak Djokovic in the final last year, and he’ll be hoping that he finds some inspiring form in Paris once again after a tricky 2017 so far.