Friday 5 June 2015 08:20, UK
After Andy Murray's fourth-round win over Jeremy Chardy, we picked out five things we learned from his latest triumph.
Clay classes pay off
The British No 1 is yet to suffer a defeat on clay this year, bringing up his 14th victory in a row, and admitted afterwards that he has a ‘better understanding’ of how he needs to play on the surface.
His next opponent, David Ferrer, is a clay court specialist and has also noticed a shift in Murray’s tactics in recent months.
“Andy is much more aggressive,” said the Spaniard. “When he uses the different shots he has, he's one of the best players in the top three.
"I think that he's more aware of what's happening, not just on quick surfaces, but also on clay."
Certainly the Scot went for the jugular against Chardy in the fourth set, breaking the Frenchman three times to deflate the local fans.
Maybe he is heeding advice from two-time champion Jim Courier, who urged Murray to take the match to his opponents.
"Against the top players you cannot win by defence alone,” said Courier. “They just don't beat themselves.
"You have to attack them. That's what Andy did in Madrid, and I hope he will do that at this tournament and through the rest of his career."
Murray received criticism following Sunday’s win over Nick Kyrgios after he vented his frustration with a few choice words.
The conduct of tennis players is under closer scrutiny than other sports, with the cameras picking up almost every reaction and comment on court.
But Murray has made a conscious effort to curb bad language and tried to bite his tongue during his win over Chardy.
“I like to think I am much better now than I was before,” he said. "It's just unfortunate in tennis, it gets picked up a lot. You go for your towel, the microphone is right there, and you forget where you are sometimes.
"In other sports, like football for example, the language they use isn't that pleasant but the camera is not there on them all the time.
"I'd rather not do it but it's one of the mistakes I make as a human being."
Murray was forced to contend with a raucous crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen, with the partisan home fans hoping to see Chardy advance.
Throw a British-French rivalry into the mix and it was inevitable that Murray, our very own Brit abroad, was going to receive a frosty reception in Paris.
But there was added spice to this Gallic encounter as Chardy had taken a pre-match swipe at Murray’s decision to pull out of the Rome Masters before the third round due to fatigue.
The Dunblane man had been fit enough to despatch the Frenchman in his previous match and Chardy seemed to intepret his withdrawal as a personal slight.
Chardy said: "I was a little bit upset. I mean, when you are starting a tournament and he beat me first round, and he's so confident and he wants to be one of the best players, win a Grand Slam."
This all meant that Murray received jeers and boos on occasions from the fired-up locals, but he yet again displayed his mental toughness after dropping the second set and going down a break in the third.
The 28-year-old’s boundless fitness was again to the fore as he ripped the rug from under Chardy’s feet in the fourth set.
Until that point, the player from the Pyrenees had held his own against the world No 3, taking the second set before letting an early break slip away in the third.
But a testing encounter failed to affect Murray’s energy reserves as he wrestled back control in the fourth set, savaging Chardy’s increasingly brittle serve.
Kyrgios, who was swept aside by the Scot on Sunday, described him as a 'freak athlete' following his straight sets defeat.
“He's strong, I think that's how he gets his advantage when he plays,” said the impressed Australian.
Chardy became just the latest opponent to wilt under Murray’s relentless pursuit of victory.
An upcoming quarter-final against Ferrer will give another clear indication of how much Murray has improved on clay.
The swaggering Spaniard has won all four of their meetings on clay, including a previous Paris quarter-final in 2012.
Murray accepts he must raise his standards even higher if he wants to earn a place in the last four.
“It gets tougher every match. I now play Ferrer, someone I've never beaten on clay before and have lost to at the French Open.
"I will have to play great tennis to beat him, he is a fantastic player.
"I feel like I have a better understanding of how I need to play on this surface than I did three years ago but David is a fantastic player on all surfaces. It will be a big test for me."
But Ferrer, a losing finalist in 2013, is full of respect for a foe who has answered every question on the red dirt so far this year.
Murray holds a 9-6 head-to-head advantage and should draw confidence from victories in their last two encounters on the hard courts of Vienna and Valencia.
