Murray gets nightmare draw despite stepping down to Challenger event

Andy Murray discusses Battle of the Brits competition in 2022

Andy Murray has been dealt a kick in the teeth after dropping down to a Challenger Tour event this week, with a nightmare draw against experienced Frenchman Gael Monfils threatening to derail his bid to build confidence after a tricky start to the clay-court season.

Murray admitted that the clay swing was not going to plan after crashing out of the Madrid Open in the first round last week. His next tournament, which gets underway on Wednesday, is a Challenger Tour event – the second-highest tier of tennis competition.

The three-time Grand Slam champion evidently wants to rebuild some momentum after three successive first-round tournament exits, but he will not have things easy after being drawn against Monfils at the Challenger Aix En-Provence.

Murray has won four of his head-to-head meetings with Monfils, who has beaten the Brit twice before, but the pair have not met competitively since 2014.

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Monfils has tumbled down the world rankings after a long injury layoff and he will go into Wednesday’s clash 270 places behind Murray. But the Frenchman is a player of serious pedigree, reaching the French Open semi-finals in 2008, the US Open semi-finals in 2016 and powering to the last eight of the Australian Open only last year.

Several years ago, it would have been unthinkable that the duo would meet in a second-tier event, but both are looking to rediscover their mojo amid respective spells of faltering form in recent weeks.

Monfils is 1-5 for the season, while Murray gave an honest assessment on his condition after losing to Andrea Vavassori last time out, with his prospects of competing at the French Open and Wimbledon already a hot topic of discussion.

“Certainly the beginning of the clay season hasn’t been that easy for me, but normally after a few weeks, I start to feel better and play better,” explained the 35-year-old. “Obviously last year, I’m not saying I came [to Madrid] and played unbelievable tennis straight away, but I was playing well enough to win matches against good players, top players.

“I would like to play [the French Open], just purely because I don’t know if I’ll get another opportunity to play again. Whilst I feel fit and healthy, I would like to give it a go.

“But I also have ambitions of competing for Wimbledon titles and that sort of stuff, and I know that sitting here today, that probably doesn’t sound realistic, but I do believe that it’s a possibility. I obviously want to do the right thing there.”

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