Murray makes quick recovery, ankle feels good heading into Roland-Garros matchup with Wawrinka

When Andy Murray suffered what looked like a bad ankle injury during 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(5) loss to Tomas Machac at the Miami Open, an appearance at Roland-Garros may have seemed like a longshot. The general consensus was that the 37-year-old would target a return at Wimbledon.

Against all odds, though, Murray is ready to go for the French Open. The Scot even played a warmup tournament at the Bordeaux Challenger, where he advanced one round before losing to Gregoire Barrere.

It was by no means a spectacular result on Murray’s part, but the most important thing is that was — and remains — encouraged about his physical status.

“(The) ankle’s been really good,” the three-time Grand Slam champion said during his pre-tournament press conference on Friday in Paris. “I mean, it’s always — when you come back to playing matches and stuff — physically, it’s challenging. It’s a bit harder. Obviously, as you as you get older, my body generally feels better the more matches that I play. That intensity, it’s always hard to kind of match that in practice.

“I have a few aches and pains, but the ankle has been really good. So (I’m) happy about that of Miami.

“Initially it was looking pretty unlikely (that I would play Roland-Garros).It’s always difficult with injuries. You never know exactly how well they’re going to heal and how the rehab is is going to go, so kind of putting time frames and stuff on it isn’t always the smartest thing. Based on the the sort of injury that I had, you know, it was looking like sort of 10 to 12 weeks. Therefore I probably wouldn’t have been able to play, but [the rehab] actually went really, really smoothly.

“I was close to being able to play in Rome. But, yeah, (I’m) happy that (I) managed to get it sorted and (am) able to compete here again.”

WAWRINKA FIRST UP FOR MURRAY

Murray will have to be ready to go right from the start, because his first-round match is against none other than former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka. It will be their 24th meeting overall, with Murray leading the head-to-head series 13-9 (13-10 on the main tour).

“I played against him the first time when I was 18, in the Davis Cup in 2005,” the former world No 1 reflected. “And then obviously (I) competed against him at some of the biggest tournaments and in big matches over the over the years.

“It’s incredible that he’s still competing at the highest level at 39 years old and great that we get the opportunity to play against each other. It should be a brilliant, brilliant atmosphere…. He’s obviously had an amazing career and, yeah, it’s a pleasure to to get to play against him in another slam.”

This will be their fourth encounter at Roland-Garros; Wawrinka has won two of the first three. They split two semi-final showdowns in 2016 and 2017 before the Swiss prevailed 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 in the 2020 first round.

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