Britain's Andy Murray says he is ready to challenge for the French Open when he gets his campaign under way on Tuesday, despite a lack of recent form.

The world number one has a relatively modest 16-7 record this year, with just five wins on clay.

He plays Russian Andrey Kuznetsov in the first round at about 14:00 BST, with fellow Britons Johanna Konta and Kyle Edmund also in action on day three.

Murray has a 2-0 record against Kuznetsov, ranked 73rd after reaching the semi-finals in Geneva last week.

Murray was in good spirits when he faced the media on Friday, despite coughing occasionally.

Another bout of sickness last week brought a brief halt to training, after he suffered with shingles and the flu earlier in the year, as well as an elbow injury.

"The past few months have not been good, obviously. I haven't played well. I had a few issues as well," said the Scot.

"I need to accept that I'm struggling and then find a way to get through it.

"I will get through it - I'm sure of that. When that happens, I don't know. Hopefully it happens in a few days. Hopefully it happens at this event. If it doesn't, maybe it happens during the grass."

Murray, who turned 30 earlier this month, faces a huge task to hold on to his number one ranking in the coming months, as he defends the large number of points he racked up over the second half of 2017.

At this stage last year he had 22 wins to his name, 12 of them on clay, and he arrived in Paris having just won the Italian Open.

He then went on a run to the final at Roland Garros that included one of his best clay performances against Stan Wawrinka in the semi-finals.

Murray looks far from that level right now, lacking match practice and struggling with his movement.

The statistics show he is winning fewer points on both first serve (72% to 76%) and second serve (50% to 54%) than in 2016, leaving him under pressure more regularly.

Murray remains optimistic, however, and is boosted at the tournament by the return of Ivan Lendl to his coaching set-up for the first time since March.

"I'm very happy with the team I have around me when he isn't there," said Murray, who has Jamie Delgado alongside him throughout the year.

"I don't think the reason why I haven't been playing well is because [Lendl] hasn't been around a lot.

"Certainly no-one mentioned that at any stage during the period between Wimbledon and the Tour Finals last year and I did OK."

Boris Becker, six-time Grand Slam champion and former coach of Novak Djokovic:

From somebody that couldn't lose a match last year to somebody that can't win a match at the moment - I don't know what happened.

I'm sure he's a bit tired, a bit burnt out with all the matches he played last year. Clay is not his best surface, so he always has to play his very best to win on clay.

I don't think it's going to take a lot - winning matches helps. Ivan (Lendl) is back in Paris now in his corner - I think that helps as well.

Maybe the break between Melbourne and the French Open was too long - but they know better.

Konta's remarkable rise from around the world's top 150 to inside the top 10 over the past two years has been achieved largely away from clay courts.

The Briton, 26, has picked up a couple of wins on the surface over the past month but has yet to hit the heights of her grass and especially hard-court success.

"I'm lucky enough to have been challenged quite a bit this clay season, so I'm really enjoying that," Konta told BBC Sport.

"It's really giving me the opportunity to grow, to improve my game, my competitiveness and generally me as a person."

She has a chance to claim her first main-draw win at Roland Garros, having twice lost in the first round, when she takes on Taiwanese world number 109 Hsieh Su-wei.

The pair have met twice before - with one win each - but never on clay and not since 2013.

"She's an incredibly talented player, I do remember that," added Konta." She can be quite tricky, so I'll be trying to take care of things my end and adapt as best as possible."

Source:
courtesy of BBC SPORTS

by Piers Newbery

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