Painkillers can ease Murray into the French Open semi-finals
Published:Andy Murray’s ankle is the hot topic of the French Open and punters will be hoping it holds up for his quarter-final with Juan Ignacio Chela today.
Murray is 1/7 to beat Chela today and is the subject of continued support after battling back for the second time in two days to beat Viktor Troicki yesterday.
Troicki failed to take advantage of the one set shootout yesterday, and Argentine Chela will be hoping he can hurt Murray’s French Open bid by targeting the Scotsman’s ankle and is 4/1 to do so today.
This will be the third consecutive day that Murray has had to play tennis and for a man with a dodgy ankle, that isn’t the best preparation.
Murray has confirmed he is taking up to 20 pills a day to ease him through the pain of his ankle and while backing a man who is in so much pain may not be ideal, his opponent is the weakest player remaining in the draw.
Chela has battled his way into the French Open quarter-finals with two five-set victories and one four-set victory, but after winning the Dusseldorf World Team Cup a fortnight ago Chela can provide Murray with a real battle.
In head-to-head terms Murray is dominant, winning all of the last ix and losing just the once when they first met in the Australian Open.
This will be the third year in a row that Murray and Chela have faced off in the French Open and Murray won 3-0 in 2009 and 3-1 in 2010.
With Chela’s doggedness and Murray’s injury troubles, we fancy the Scot to win 3-1 at 12/5 and we’re taking the 11/8 for there to be a tiebreak in the match.
