Andy Murray and Dan Evans make history with French Open wildcard
Andy Murray and Dan Evans have broken tradition, becoming the first all non-French team to receive a Roland Garros main draw wildcard since 2001.
Murray has only recently returned to the ATP Tour, after injuring an ankle ligament at the Miami Open back in March.
The former world No.1 has been very open about the fact that 2024 is ‘likely’ to be his final season on the ATP Tour, making this Murray’s final appearance at the French Open.
However, there is still a possibility that Murray could compete on the grounds of Roland Garros again, with the Paris Olympics taking place later this year.
This could have been behind Murray’s and Evans’ motivation to apply for a doubles wildcard, with only a few months to go until the Games.
This is going to be EPIC ????
Team @andy_murray & Dan Evans have received a wild card for @rolandgarros doubles #BackTheBrits ???????? pic.twitter.com/ghnQmb13uu
— LTA (@the_LTA) May 22, 2024
It is not the first time that the pair have teamed up together, having also played in Washington D.C. last year and at Indian Wells all the way back in 2017.
As previously mentioned, Murray and Evans are the first entirely non-French team to receive a wildcard since Nicolas Kiefer and Marat Safin in 2001, who lost in the opening round that year.
All of the other wildcards have been awarded to French pairings, including Quentin Halys/Nicolas Mahut, Gregoire Barrere/Lucas Pouille and Richard Gasquet/Hugo Gaston.
2024 Roland-Garros Doubles wildcards announced ????
Women’s doubles
???????? Gracheva/Lechemia
???????? Burel/Paquet
???????? Cornet/Ferro
???????? Cascino/Monnet
???????? Jeanjean/Ponchet
???????? Jacquemot/Tan
???????? Dartron/Rakotomanga RajaonahMen’s doubles
???????? Halys/Mahut
???????? Barrere/Pouille
???????? Gasquet/Gaston
????????…— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 22, 2024
Inside the baseline…
It is great to see Andy Murray receive a wildcard for the doubles tournament, with Roland Garros seemingly paying more respect to a tennis great in the latter stages of their career than they did with Dominic Thiem. Whether Murray and Dan Evans are actually wanting to pair together at the Olympics is yet to be seen, with the former playing with doubles specialist Joe Salisbury in Tokyo three years ago.
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