Andy Murray humbled by Stan Wawrinka as wait over Roland Garros move drags on

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Andy Murray during a match

It was a match to forget for Andy Murray in the second round of the BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux as he was trounced by fellow three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka.

With both players opting to compete in the ATP Challenger Tour event in southwestern France to get some match practice on clay ahead of the French Open, Murray’s defeat perhaps indicates that he won’t play in Paris after all.

This was a far cry from the display that Murray produced during his title run at the Open Aix Provence and was rather similar to his opening-round defeats at the Madrid Open and Italian Open.

It was a humbling of note as the two-time Wimbledon champion went down 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 15 minutes and he only had one break point in the entire match – and it came in the final game when Wawrinka was serving it out.

Swiss great Wawrinka broke in game four of the opening set and Murray then saved five set points in game eight before the Swiss served out the set.

It was one-way traffic in the second set with breaks in games one, three and five before Murray got his only break point in game six only for Wawrinka to save it and then wrap up the second-round clash.

While former world No 3 Wawrinka – who faces Ugo Humbert in the quarter-finals – received a boost ahead of Roland Garros, it will no doubt raise further questions for Murray about whether or not he should enter the clay-court Grand Slam.

The former world No 1 is happy with his fitness and “trusts” his body to come through five-set matches.

“It’s not so much about [physical worries],” he told BBC Sport.

He added: “I trust that my body will be okay after what I did at the beginning of the year. I played back-to-back five-hour matches and did well physically in those matches.”

Murray has made only one French Open appearance since undergoing hip surgery and that was a first-round defeat at the hands of the same Wawrinka in 2020.

He has hinted before that it is perhaps best to focus on grass and Wimbledon and he again went down that road.

“It’s just what the right thing is to prioritise at this stage in my career. I trust my body now but I’m aware that my best chance of having a deep run is more likely to happen at Wimbledon,” said Murray.

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Andy Murray Stan Wawrinka

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