French Open 2011: Andy Murray should not be troubled by Parisian qualifier Eric Prodon
Andy Murray starts his French Open on Monday by playing a Parisian qualifier who has been nicknamed 'The Roger Federer of the Futures'.
Hot streak: Andy Murray has proved he can cope with the best on clay Photo: EPA
By Mark Hodgkinson, Paris 10:16PM BST 22 May 2011
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It sounds very much like an insult dressed up as a compliment, the tennis equivalent of an actor being described as 'The Laurence Olivier of the panto circuit'.
Only in the grinding obscurity of third-tier Futures tournaments, a place for dead-eyed toilers and the hopefuls of the men's game, does Eric Prodon have any kind of profile. By the age of 29, most have found their natural level in this sport, and for Prodon that does not appear to be becoming a regular at the grand slams.
For all the success that Prodon has had on the Futures circuit, and also on the level above on the Challenger tour – he has won 21 titles during his career – he has never gone on to become a top-100 player or to establish himself on the tour proper.
It is only extremely infrequently that Prodon pops up at the sport's most important tournaments, and he is yet to win a match in the main draw of a grand slam. On the three previous occasions he has featured on the Parisian brick dust during the tournament proper, after receiving wild cards from the French Tennis Federation, he has lost in the opening round, and he is of the age now that if he wants to play in the main draw he has to win three rounds of qualifying.
He did so last week and so the world No 118, so accustomed to playing matches on the fringes and in the shadows, finds himself in the white heat of a grand slam competition, playing against someone who ought to make the semi-finals for the first time. It will be Prodon's first career meeting with Scotland's world No 4, and his most significant match anywhere since the time in the first round nine years ago when he was obliterated by Andre Agassi.
Every ambitious tennis player has to come through the Futures and Challengers circuits. Murray passed through quickly, though he does recall seeing Prodon at a Futures tournament in Scotland in 2004. While Murray has always aspired to win a grand slam title and to reach the top of the rankings, Prodon's grand ambition is to one day break into the top 100. Same sport, two different worlds.
For Prodon's last and only win on the main tour, you have to spool all the way back to 2003 when he beat Spain's Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo at a tournament in Casablanca. 'Prodon le Rouge' they were calling him in L'Equipe, as a foot injury means that the French No 13 plays almost all his tennis on clay as it is a softer and more forgiving surface for his body than hard courts. Rouge or not, if Murray, who in Rome just over a week ago came within two points of resetting Novak Djokovic's undefeated run, were to lose to Prodon it would be the most disconcerting defeat of his grand slam career. In Murray's little section of the draw, he is the only player who was not in the qualifying competition, as a victory over Prodon would give him the prize of a match against Italy's Simone Bolelli or Canada's Frank Dancevic.
Murray can be unpredictable, and he has not been entirely pleased with the balls that are being used at this tournament, but he is surely not so unpredictable as to lose to Prodon.
Meanwhile, one of Heather Watson, from Guernsey, or Anne Keothavong, a Londoner, could become the first British woman to win a match in the main draw of the French Open since Clare Wood defeated Gigi Fernandez in 1994. If Keothavong were to beat Russia's Vesna Dolonts, she would have a likely second-round match with Francesca Schiavone, the defending champion from Italy, who opens against Melanie Oudin of the United States. Watson, who qualified, has been paired with Stephanie Foretz Gacon, a French wild card. A third Briton, Elena Baltacha, will tomorrow play Sloane Stephens, a qualifier from the United States.
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