While a substantial part of last year’s season seemed to revolve around Murray, it seems like this year Murray has been having a tough time, especially considering his recent loss in Rome to Fabio Fognini.

This season for Murray has been a rough one. While last season he managed to win his last 24 matches and attain the world number one ranking, it seems like he no longer posses the spark that lead him to the top.

Murray stated “I got to number one in the world at the end of last year and there’s been some times this year where it has been difficult to keep up the motivation and set new goals.”

This is not exactly a new pattern for Murray, who has had mental and motivation troubles throughout his professional career. Andy’s win percentage this year has been extremely low as well, at a 70.8%. The last world number one who had such a low win percentage was Pete Sampras in 1999.

Murray, however, doesn’t seem to be letting these losses get to his head. In an interview he stated that “I always wanted to perform my best and play my best tennis at the grand slams and that’s still the case now.” He also said that he feels extra motivation during a Grand Slam, even if he hasn’t been playing well. Murray went on to say that he had been in worse positions, both game wise and mentally, and these statements seem to indicate that Murray is ready to fight for a first French Open title.

Will Murray be able to pull his game together for the French Open? And more importantly, will he truly be able to shake of his Rome loss and and altogether mediocre season as world number one?

Similarly, Novak Djokovic has said that he has been having a ‘little bit of a crisis’ this year, evident from the fact that he hasn’t won a major since the 2016 French Open, lost his number one spot to Andy, and fired his entire coaching team along with Boris Becker.

Djokovic stated that for the 2016 French Open there was “a lot of anticipation, expectations and pressure building up each year that I was coming back. It brought a lot of joy but also a lot of relief. There were so many emotions involved and so many things that were on the line. ”

He went on to say that “When I was able to achieve that, I was just so empty.”

However, it seems like Djokovic is looking forward to being back in Paris. “It’s all part of the sport. I’m feeling much better now than I was maybe three or four months ago. I’m excited to go back to Paris again, obviously.”

Djokovic also feels that the man to beat this year at Roland Garros is Nadal.

Seems like both Djokovic and Murray are having some problems with motivation this season. Will they be able to shake off their rough starts and bring out their ‘A’ game?

Seems like we’ll find out soon enough.