 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 29 May 2005 |
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| 29 May 2005 - Roland Garros, Paris - Eleanor Preston | |
| Murray ready to make his mark on clay |
British reigning junior US Open champion Andrew Murray says he has a point to prove at Roland Garros and got his campaign off to an almost perfect start by beating Venezuelan Piero Luisi 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to earn a place in the second round of the boys’ competition.
“I didn’t get the chance to play last year because I was injured,” said Murray, who is top seed in Paris. “It’s a junior grand slam and a lot of good players have won the junior title here. I wanted to come here and prove that I can play on clay and not just on fast surfaces.”
Murray recently parted ways with his Spanish coach Pato Alvarez and says he will work on a short-term basis with the Lawn Tennis Association’s Mark Petchey during the grass court season before looking for a replacement to oversee his training at his base at the Sanchez-Casals Academy in Barcelona.
“I just wasn’t enjoying things on or off the court. He was trying to get me to play in a way I didn’t like and it just wasn’t working,” said Murray. “He wanted me to be less aggressive and play more like the Spanish players. That’s not the way I play.”
Murray came through against Luisi despite revealing afterwards that he was suffering from an upset stomach, something which particularly affected him in the second set.
“I ate something last night and at the end of the first set I felt really bad,” said Murray, who faces France’s Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigny in round two. “When I was playing I had no energy. I didn’t feel like moving and he played very well. In the third set I knew I had to go for it because I knew if I carried on like I was in the second set then I probably would have lost.”
On paper Murray’s main rivals for the boys’ title is 15-year-old Donald Young, who won the boys’ Australian Open title in January and last year’s Orange Bowl champion Timothy Neilly. Young and Neilly, both from the USA, play their opening matches on Tuesday.
Sergei Bubka, who made the semi-finals in Melbourne, is already through to the second round at Roland Garros courtesy of a 6-4, 6-0 win over American Alexander Clayton. Seeds Sun-Yong Kim (Korea), Carsten Ball (USA), Juan Martin Del Porto (Argentina) and Raony Carvalho (Brazil) were also amongst the first round winners on Monday.
In the girls’ competition, Mailyne Andrieux of France scored the upset of the day by knocking out fourth-seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, though there was better news for Wozniak’s compatriot Melanie Gloria, who came through qualifying then beat eleventh seed Aravane Rezai of France 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Alize Cornet, who, like Rezai, won a round in the women’s competition last week, carried that success into the juniors by beating Shayna McDowell of Australia 7-6, 6-2 and says she is anxious to make progress in the juniors this week despite her taste of life in the main draw.
“It’s easy to make the change from main draw to juniors,” said Cornet. “I have to play the same way as I did then, very concentrated. Now my objective is the juniors and I’d like to win three or four matches and then we’ll see.”
Cornet trains in Nice rather than at the French Tennis Federation’s facilities at Roland Garros but says she still feels very much at home playing on the Parisian clay. “It’s a very special place when you are French,” she said. “When I was a lot younger I would watch the matches here on TV and so it’s a dream realized to come and play here.”
Top seed in the girls’ draw Jessica Kirkland opened her account at Roland Garros with an unfussy 6-0, 6-2 win over Dominice Ripoll of Germany and was joined in the second round by, amongst others, seeds Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, Yung Jan Chan of Tapei and Monica Nicolescu of Romania.
Australian Open junior champion Viktoria Azarenka, seeded two at Roland Garros, had her opening match against Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova postponed when showers fell on Paris and truncated the opening day’s schedule.
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