If Andy Murray wins the 2015 French Open, he will have to beat the usual suspects – and, if he should do so, he might spare a thought for the young Australian who has pushed him to the point of productive irritation in practice this week.
Murray has long regarded Thanasi Kokkinakis with the sort of respect a seasoned boxer reserves for a sparring partner who may one day try to rip his head off in a world title fight. As it happens, the fast-improving South Australian teenager is in Novak Djokovic’s quarter of the draw and would have to beat either his countryman Bernard Tomic or the eternal under-achiever at his home tournament, Richard Gasquet, to play the world No1 in the third round.
But out on Philippe Chatrier during the week, he was belting the ball at Murray as if he had already reached and won the final. With all the avuncular charity he could muster, Murray observed on Friday: “I like him as a person first. I think he’s a very nice guy, good fun to be around. He seems like he enjoys the game. For me to train with him is good, because he works hard, is good fun and he’s very good at tennis.
“He has a big forehand. For a big guy he moves well. Every time I practise with him, he’s better than the time before. I hope he does well because I like him and I’m sure he will have a good career.”
Kokkinakis, at 83 in the world, is one of four teenagers in the top 100 alongside the feisty Croatian boxing enthusiast Borna Coric (53), the South Korean Chung Hyeon (69) and the 6ft 6in German Alexander Zverev (85) – trained by Murray’s ex-conditioner Jez Green.
But Kokkinakis may be the sturdiest of them all, a gifted athlete with lots of power and the right mix of arrogance and confidence, and some encouraging performances since losing to his compatriot Sam Groth in the second round of the Australian Open.
He has beaten six players above him in the rankings this year, pushed several others close and comes here on an eight-match winning streak with the Bordeaux Challenger title to show for it. He is definitely one to watch.
Murray has Kokkinakis’s more flamboyant countryman Nick Kyrgios lurking in his quarter, after hopefully getting past the qualifier Facundo Argüello, the world No139, in the first round and either the steady young Canadian Vasek Pospisil or the excellent Portuguese João Sousa.
Beyond the third round – and possibly Kyrgios – there is the likelihood of matches against John Isner (or David Goffin, whom he was due to play in Rome last week before pulling out as a safeguard against fatigue at the end of his 10-0, two-title run on clay) and David Ferrer before the semi-finals. If Djokovic does negotiate Kokkinakis and beats Rafael Nadal in the quarters, he will represent the Scot’s toughest test by a distance.
All his career, according to his former coach Brad Gilbert, the one player Murray has wanted to beat more than any other is Djokovic, who was born just a week after him. Their careers have not run exactly on parallel lines and Murray, with two slam titles (beating Djokovic in both finals) would love to claw back some of the deficit against the Serb, who owns eight majors and starts as favourite in every tournament he now enters.
Murray does not judge a Djokovic-Nadal quarter-final as necessarily helpful to his cause. “It could work both ways,” he said. “If they play a five-hour marathon, then whoever plays against them in the semis is happy about that. But, if either one of them goes on the court and crushes the other one, they can be pretty confident going into the semi-finals as well. But I hope I’m there. There are certainly no guarantees.”
He will have for company in the draw Kyle Edmund, who qualified on Friday by beating Adrián Menéndez-Maceiras 6-1, 6-4.
If Edmund were to beat Stephane Robert in the first round and Kyrgios in the second, he would find himself in what he describes as a dream scenario: playing his hero Murray in the third round of a slam.
