French Open 2020: Andy Murray handed wild card as he continues steady rise up world rankings

Paris: Andy Murray received a wild card into the French Open on Monday. The former No 1 was the only non-Frenchman of eight players to be given a free pass into the main draw of the clay Grand Slam which starts in 13 days. Murray was also awarded a wild card into the US Open, after his struggles with pelvic and shin injuries dropped his ranking to 129th. He went two rounds in New York, and improved to 110th, but still too low for the French Open when it published its main draw entry list. Murray’s best French Open result was the final in 2016. Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada were the only non-Frenchwomen to receive wild cards. Pironkova, who made the US Open her first comeback tournament since 2017 after having a son, achieved an impressive first-time run to the quarter-finals, where she was stopped by Serena Williams. Pironkova’s best result at Roland Garros was the quarter-finals in 2016. Bouchard reached her first final in more than four years in Istanbul on Sunday and lost in a third-set tiebreaker. She lost to eventual champion Maria Sharapova in the French Open semi-finals in 2014, the same year she reached the Wimbledon final.