Andy Murray will face an angry Richard Gasquet today in his first-round match in the French Open. Gasquet asked Stefan Fransen, the tournament referee, to move the clash to tomorrow after he suffered a leg injury winning his first ATP title in more than three years on Saturday at the Nice Open. But Fransen refused to make an exception for the Frenchman, who beat Fernando Verdasco in the Nice final.
Gasquet is understood to be upset with the decision, claiming before a second appeal was turned down that it would be unfair to force him to play within a day of his arrival in Paris from France's south coast. However, moving his and Murray's match to tomorrow would almost certainly have meant the victor playing two days in succession at some point during the tournament. It is unclear how seriously Gasquet's left leg is troubling him, although he twice required on-court treatment during his 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 victory over Verdasco, the world No 9.
That result was a 10th victory in a row for the former world No 7, who won a Challenger event in Bordeaux last week. After falling to 68th in the rankings following injury and a ban for inadvertently taking cocaine, the 23-year-old is coming into form at just the wrong time for the Scot. Gasquet is bullish about his prospects against Murray, the world No 4, saying: "This run in Nice has made my confidence return.
"The fact I have put 10 victories together in two weeks has made all the difference, but I know Murray is going to be tough. "Murray reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year and also made the semi-finals in Monte Carlo [this month]. "So, in my view, he is one of the top 10 to 15 players on clay." The match-up is the pick of today's action, with the schedule also seeing Roger Federer, the defending champion, play his first round match against Peter Luczak of Australia.
* PA