Murray faces Chela in French Open second round
After a gruelling first round match at the French Open, Andy Murray faces clay court specialist Juan Ignatio Chela in the second round of the Grand Slam.
And if the five-set, four hour and four minute match against Richard Gasquet wasn’t a true enough test of Murray’s staying power, the Scot revealed after that match that he nursed a sore knee through his opener, and doesn’t see any relief from the pain any time in the near future.
“My knee is sore. A four hour match probably wasn't the best thing for it when it's been sore the last few days,” Murray told reporters after his opening match. “You know, I just gotta do my best to try and make it better for the next round.
“It's a lot worse than people think. It hurts, you know, a majority of the year, but it's something that I know it's not it's a lot easier mentally than, you know, when other things are sore, because I've had it since I was 16. It's gonna be there my whole life. It's not like I can do my knee a whole lot of damage. It's just like pretty much tendinitis in the knee. So it's just sore.”
So, Murray will soldier on but after Gasquet’s leg injury and limited recovery time after winning the title at the Open de Nice Cote D’Azur proved his undoing as that match went the distance, we’re now left to wonder whether the British No. 1 will similarly suffer the effects of his previous victory in his match against Chela.
There’s certainly no reason to doubt the fourth seed’s ability to win this match. He holds a 5-1 winning record against the Argentinian, and those five victories have come in their five most recent matches – the last two on clay.
Indeed, Murray’s most recent victory over Chela came just this month, in the second round of the Madrid Masters 1000, as the 23-year-old was taking some small steps towards regaining his form ahead of Roland Garros. Before that, their last meeting resulted in a straight sets first round victory for Murray at last year’s French Open.
While Chela can boast some clay court form this season, winning the title at the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston during April – his first ATP Tour title since 2007 – the move to the European clay courts yielded just two main draw victories for the 30-year-old prior to Roland Garros.
Indeed, Chela, who has not taken a set off Murray since he won their first encounter in the opening round of the 2006 Australian Open, might just be the ideal opponent for the great British hope as he seeks to recover from a draining opening match and build towards the second week of the French Open.
It’s now up to Murray to play through any lingering pain or exhaustion and capitalise on what appears to be some better luck of the draw in the second round.
Tags: