French Open Banana skin for Andy?

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray faces a potential banana skin in his opening round match in the French Open tomorrow.

Murray, who says his main focus will remain winning the Grand Slam events this year and that will remain the same when he names his new coach, to try and add to his two career Grand Slam titles.

Murray will wait until after the French Open to confirm the successor to Ivan Lendl, who helped the British number one break his major duck at the US Open in 2012, before adding the Wimbledon crown to that last year.

The target is the same. The target is to win Grand Slams. Andy Murray

And Murray says the new man will be tasked with the same job as Lendl, to help him challenge for the biggest honours in the game.

He told BBC Sport: “The target is the same. The target is to win Grand Slams. That’s what I want to do and I will pick the person I feel is best able to help me with that.

“The Ivan situation obviously worked out well. At that stage I hadn’t won a Grand Slam, but the goal was still to win Grand Slams.

“With Ivan having been in the same position in his career, where he lost his first four finals, that was probably why that one worked very well.”

Murray can be backed at 22/1 to win the upcoming French Open, with Novak Djokovic at 11/8 to wnd eight-time champion Rafael Nadala 6/4 to win.

Nadal is a possible semi-final opponent for Murray on the clay in Paris, with the Scot seeded to meet Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka in the last eight.

Today, we’re concentrating on a few first round upsets that may give some value, unforunately Andy may be one of them?

Potential First Round upsets……

Andrey Golubev vs Andy Murray

This is by no means a gimme for Murray and if he produces one of his more lacklustre efforts he could easily be finding a return flight to London to prepare for the grass swing earlier than expected.

Golubev loves a grind in the clay and with an 80{70aeb3532cb26dbe277d25ea128ebb74de84b9bd22e1583b0eb1b73768e061f6} chance of rain in Paris on Monday this match will probably be played in tough conditions and it could become a proper clay court test for the Brit, who is far from at home on the dirt.

Murray had the right conditions for gallant failure against Rafa Nadal in Rome, but this match is a world away from that night match at the Foro Italico in a cauldron-like atmosphere and we might see something closer than 1.1 suggests.

Golubev has beaten Stan Wawrinka and Fernando Verdasco of late and hopefully he’s over the abductor strain that saw him pull out of Nice last week.

Murray has beaten Golubev easily in the past, but not on clay and the Kazakh has a shot in this one.

Richard Gasquet vs Bernard Tomic

There are plenty of injuries concerning French players this year and Gasquet is another, having not played a match since Miami in March due to a back problem and is nowhere near match fit or sharp.

He may not need to be against the ever tough to predict Tomic, who certainly doesn’t enjoy the clay but could still be good enough to cause big problems for a likely below par Gasquet here.

The Gasman’s back has been the problem and he has only recently begun to serve and play points in practice again.

There’s a decent chance he may not even play this match, but if he does he looks vulnerable – even to Tomic on clay.

Martin Klizan vs Kei Nishikori

Yet another injury issue – this time surrounding the king of them all Nishikori – whose hip problem will not respond well to a grind on heavy clay with Klizan, who loves playing in slow, damp conditions.

Kei was last seen in Madrid taking it to Rafa Nadal and was a 1.4 shot to finish that match and tournament off but injury struck and he’s been off court since.

Klizan, meanwhile, has been returning to form and won Munich on the clay in slow, damp conditions a few weeks ago, beating Tommy Haas, Fabio Fognini, Mikhail Youzhny and Denis Istomin after coming through qualifying.

The Slovak was beaten by eventual champion Ernests Gulbis in a deciding set in Nice earlier this week, but he’s in good form, fit and should be a tough opponent for Kei, who says he’s ‘not 100{70aeb3532cb26dbe277d25ea128ebb74de84b9bd22e1583b0eb1b73768e061f6} fit.’

Gael Monfils vs Victor Hanescu

Another Frenchman, another injury problem, and this time it’s Lamonf who’s the struggler, with an ankle problem that he incurred by walking onto court in Bucharest back in April.

Ironically, it could be a Bucharest native that takes advantage of Gael’s lack of fitness and Hanescu, who was born and bred in the city, looks to beat Monfils for the third time on clay.

Victor beat Monfils in Bucharest way back in 2007 and again in their most recent meeting in 2011 in Stuttgart and he performed well last time out by making the semi finals in Oeiras.

Under normal circumstances Monfils should win, but his physical condition would have to be a major concern here.

Recommended Bets

Back Falla to beat Paire at 2.1 Back Golubev to beat Murray at 9.0 Back Tomic to beat Gasquet at 4.5 Back Klizan to beat Nishikori at 5.0 Back Hanescu to beat Monfils at 3.4

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French Open Banana skin for Andy?