Gasquet provides tough opening hurdle for Murray to overcome

Former world No 7 Gasquet represents a nightmare start for Murray, whose path to the second week at Roland Garros is paved with potential pitfalls.

Gasquet has fallen to 68th in the world, partly due to injury but also as the result of a provisional ban for taking cocaine last year, something of which he was later cleared. Murray said: "It should be very difficult. Gasquet's a very, very good player.

"He was a top-10 player in the world, he had some problems last year, he's playing very well again. He's very, very talented."

Asked if it was the toughest possible draw, Murray added: "The match could turn out a lot of different ways but he's definitely one of the best players who's not seeded. I'm going to have to play very well to beat him."

Murray, who turned 23 last week, has a 2-1 losing record against Gasquet but won their last meeting at Wimbledon two years ago, an epic five-setter that saw the Scot fight back from two sets down. "It was a great match," he said. "The first couple of sets, he played incredibly well. He was hitting winners from all over the court.

"He got very nervous when he had the chance to close the match out in the third set.

"Then there was a huge shift in momentum and I played very well the last couple of sets.

"It was one of the best atmospheres I've played in, and I'm sure the atmosphere when we play here will be great as well."

The Centre Court crowd played a huge part in Murray's Wimbledon win but he will be the villain when he takes to the clay against home favourite Gasquet.

"I've always had pretty good support here, I think," world No 4 Murray said. "They quite like the way that I play.

"But I'm not expecting the crowd to be cheering for me because I'm playing against a French player. That's totally normal."

Murray was coy when asked about his feelings on Gasquet's cocaine controversy, with authorities accepting the 23-year-old had inadvertently consumed the drug after kissing a woman who had taken it at a party.

Murray said: "I don't really know that much of the story about what actually happened but from what I know of him, it didn't seem the sort of thing that he would do, so it was good that everything got cleared."

Should Murray get past Gasquet he could face an incredibly tough run of matches against Juan Ignacio Chela, Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

French Open

Selected first-round matches

Men's Singles: R Federer (Swi) (1) v P Luczak (Aus), A Murray (Gbr) (4) v R Gasquet (Fra), E Korolev (Kaz) v N Djokovic (Ser) (3), G Mina (Fra) v R Nadal (Spa) (2).

Women's Singles: S Williams (USA) (1) v S Voegele (Swi), K O'Brien (Gbr) v J Craybas (USA), J Jankovic (Ser) (4) v A Molik (Aus), E Baltacha (Gbr) v A Radwanska (Pol) (8), F Pennetta (Ita) (14) v A Keothavong (Gbr), A Kudryavtseva (Rus) v C Wozniacki (Den) (3), P Schnyder (Swi) v V Williams (USA) (2).