May 26th, 2010 by Adam Davies

One could be forgiven for a sense of déjà vu. Andy Murray lost the opening two sets against mercurial Frenchman Richard Gasquet in their first round match of the French Open, which immediately brought Gasquet’s capitulation at Wimbledon from the same position two years ago.

In SW19, crowd pressure and mental fatigue appeared to get to Gasquet, but at Roland Garros, his loss was more down to physical condition.

Having played and won an exhausting final in Nice against Fernando Verdasco on Saturday, Gasquet looked in excellent form ahead of the French Open. However, with just a day between that match and his clash with Murray, he barely had any time to recover.

Despite playing excellently for the first two sets, with multiple winners from his beautiful backhand, he could not maintain his level, and the British number one lives to fight another day. He will next face Argentinian ace Juan Ignacio Chela, who he beat in last year’s tournament – as well as in the ATP Madrid Masters earlier this year.

Clay is not Murray’s favourite surface, but he did reach the quarter final in Paris last year. After the climax of the French Open, the grass court season begins, and the Scot will attempt to defend his title at the AEGON Championships at Queens in a top class field. Queens Club will host some of the very best in the game, including Murray, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Fernando Verdasco, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marin Cilic.