Transition Time: Murray on Clay

Today's 7-6(11) 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini for the British number one, wouldnt of sent that many shockwaves throughout British tennis, but for Andy Murray himself, it was one of the few things that the Scot hasnt yet achieved so far in his career. 

By beating the 108th ranked Italian, Murray reached the Quarter Finals of a clay court event, for the first time in his career. 

Clay is by far and away Murray's weakest surface, which is somewhat of a surprise considering the years spent at the Sanchez Casal academy that were spent while in his primiative years. 

Though he is likely to come unstuck in his Quarter Final against Russia's Nikolay Davydenko, Murray can still be pleased with his progress at Monte Carlo, in a pivotal part of his season if he is to push up the rankings and make a challenge towards the top two. 

Murray had an indifferent clay court season last year, and its because of this that means that any decent performances will still count for a lot, as the man directly above him in the rankings, Novak Djokovic has a fair few more points to defend, and you would expect that it is only a matter of time before we have a Brit inside the top three of the mens rankings, for the first time in the open era.  

The clay court season is a long and ardous one, and if your of the mind set that Murray has a chance of winning in Paris at the end of next month, think again. 

Nadal will win the French Open (providing he doesnt go and break his leg, even then I would still fancy him against most), he's looked unstopable and even the best of the best on clay have been made to bow down to the mercurial Nadal on the red stuff. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Murray will one day win a grand slam, it may even be as soon as July at Wimbledon, but on the clay of Roland Garros a 4th round showing or even a repeat of his performance last year where he reached the 3rd round will still be a good showing for the Brit, in this transition stage of the season, where results are not going to reflect his massive improvement or his ranking, but the results he does manage to pick up will make a massive difference in rankings terms at the very least.