EXCLUSIVE - Leon Smith: Winning French Open would be a phenomenal achievement for Andy Murray

Speaking exclusively to Eurosport, Smith believes that victory at Roland Garros for the world number two would top his previous achievements due to the difficulties in adapting late to clay courts.

“He’s achieved a lot. But it would be a phenomenal achievement for somebody who was not brought up on the surface.

“OK, he moved to Spain to train, but that was when he was 15 or 16. To be able to overcome everybody on the tour who has been brought up on it their whole life, to be able to do it as a British player would be absolutely incredible,” claimed Smith.

Standing in Murray’s way is the reigning champion Stanislas Wawrinka, who Smith believes will present a stern test for the Scot.

Murray holds the head-to-head edge on Wawrinka (8-7), though the Swiss has a 100% record on clay, winning all three contests between the pair, but Smith believes Murray has the tools to change that.

He said: “It will be a tough match. The things Andy will be focusing on are: keep a good court position and try and be offensive whenever he can.

“Wawrinka hits the ball very hard, he’s got big ground strokes. They aren’t as easy to hit back when you’re on the run. So Andy’s job is to not do all the running, try and be nearer the base line as often as possible.

“He’ll clearly want to serve well and get a high percentage of first serves in as that stops Wawrinka having that big swing on the second serve returns.”

Murray took six years to break through in Paris after turning pro when he reached the semi-final in 2011 and the 29-year-old has reached two semi-finals and a quarter-final in his three appearances since.

Smith puts that down to a lot of hard work and determination to adjust to clay and three clay court titles since 2015 suggests it is paying off.

“No doubt about it,” Smith agreed, “he’s invested a lot of time and energy. I think, in particular, the movement side of things. When you’re brought up traditionally on a hard court, there’s a certain type of movement.

“Andy is one of, if not, the best mover on hard courts. But on clay with the sliding and different transitions and what comes with that, he’s had to invest more time into it.”

Smith believes Murray’s role in Great Britain’s Davis Cup team has also made a difference due to the competition effectively extending his usual clay court season given the frequency in which teams opt to play ties on clay.

“I think that he mentioned that the fact that normally you would just prepare for the clay court season, but with Davis Cup we’ve had a couple of moments with the clay court season on clay court ties, such as the final last year, where it actually added some extra weeks.

“By doing that, it’s probably given him some additional moments where he can explore the surface a bit more and I think that’s helped a bit.”