Throughout his illustrious career, Roland Garros was the Grand Slam that Andy Murray found the hardest to win.
Murray secured three Grand Slams in an incredibly difficult era, triumphing at the US Open in 2012 and twice at the Wimbledon championships, winning in 2013 and 2016.
The Briton also came agonisingly close to capturing the Australian Open crown, having made the final in Melbourne five times.
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In Paris, however, as it was for everyone else, the job seemed almost impossible with Rafael Nadal in the draw.
In 2016, though, Murray made the final of the French Open, where he met Novak Djokovic.
Andy Murray’s reaction after losing the 2016 French Open final
Murray came out firing in the championship match, taking the first set against Djokovic 6-3.
But the Serb quickly turned things around, and took sets two and three comfortably against the Scot, 6-1, 6-2.
In the fourth, Murray attempted a comeback when breaking back, but as per the Guardian that year, he ran into a big problem.
Murray explained: “The problem was I was such a long way behind by that stage. When you’re trying to do something for the first time and you’ve not experienced it before, that can throw you off – a few extra nerves.
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“In that game, I was close to making it very interesting, but he did well to finish it at the end.
I was struggling. I was a couple of points from going out of the tournament in the first round. But then when you get there and you want to win. I didn’t do that today.
“At points I did well – not necessarily the whole match. He did play extremely well, gave me very few errors, started hitting the ball a bit close to the lines. I was dropping a bit far back behind the baseline.”
Andy Murray’s comments on the ‘big three’ after losing the final
Had he not have been playing in the same era as the ‘big three’ of Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, Murray would have likely won more than ten majors.
Asked about the other three after the final, Murray replied: “I mean, obviously the guys I have been around the last few years have made things difficult for me.
“I mean, you know, I have been close-ish to winning all of the slams now and, you know, unfortunately, all of them have done it instead.
“But I guess I’ve got a few more years to try and do that. I think, you know, when I finish I will be more proud of my achievements maybe.
“None of the big events I have won have I done it without beating one of those guys, you know, or a couple of them.
“So, yeah. Maybe when I finish playing, you know, my achievements will mean a little bit more.”
Murray made the semifinal of Roland Garros the next year, but never made it past the first round after that.
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