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It’s a case of parallel storylines and formlines in the first semi-final at the French Open, as Andy Murray looks to make his second final in a row against former champion Stan Wawrinka. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 8:45pm (AEST).
Murray’s form was criticised from every angle before the second grand slam of the year got underway, but unlike Novak Djokovic, who was bundled out on Wednesday, the second seed has been able to turn things around dramatically.
The Scot has only dropped three sets over the first five matches, which not only shows his form is solid, but has limited his court time. With injury worries still hanging over his head, that was always going to determine how far he could go in the tournament.
With clay being so brutal to play on, it will have kept Murray relatively fresh. After taking four sets to get past his first two opponents – Andrey Kuznetsov and Martin Klizan – both of whom are dangerous – he came away with a commanding performance over Juan Martin Del Potro.
The win against Del Potro came after a first set tie-breaker and finished with a third set beagle. Murray hasn’t looked back from that match, breezing past up and comer Karen Khachanov in straight sets and then recovering from a set down to dominate Kei Nishikori.
Wawrinka, like Murray, was struggling in the lead up to the second grand slam of the year. While injuries didn’t play their part, the former champion simply wasn’t playing good tennis.
His usually brilliant groundstroke game wasn’t flowing and it looked like he was already looking ahead to the grass court season and Wimbledon.
Instead, Wawrinka won the final tournament before Roland Garris in Geneva and has carried that form into Paris, yet to drop a set after his first five matches.
The first three rounds were always going to be straight forward against Jozef Kovalik, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Fabio Fognini, with his serve firing at a high percentage.
However, Wawrinka so often gets taken the distance during the first weeks of grand slams, so the fact he is still yet to lose a set shows he is on.
The fourth round saw him breeze past Gael Monfils 7-5, 7-6, 6-2, before he marched right over seventh seed Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in what may have been his best performance of the year.
If he continues that form, he will be incredibly tough to defeat.
The pair have a long history, with 18 previous matches. Murray leads the head-to-head battle 11-7 and has won three of the last four including last year’s French Open semi-final in four sets, which counts for a lot here.
Prediction
Based purely on form I was leaning towards Wawrinka, but this is a flip of the coin job and with Murray winning the semi-final between the pair last year and a five-set grind expected, I’ll tip the Scot to go through again.
Murray in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the first men’s semi-final at the French Open from 8:45pm (AEST) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.