THAT WAS THE CLAY IT ALL STARTED TO UNRAVEL

Murray admits he knew hip injury would never heal after his painful Paris loss to Stan in the 2017 semi

- NEIL MCLEMAN

ANDY MURRAY has relived the agony of suffering his hip injury against Stan Wawrinka at the 2017 French Open and admitted: "I never recovered."

The two veteran Grand Slam champions will face each for a 23rd time in the first round at Roland Garros tomorrow.

The Scot has played the Swiss star in his last two matches here, including a brutal first-round defeat in 2020. But Wawrinka's five-set win in the 2017 semi-finals was followed by two years of injury hell for Murray and two hip operations.

The 2016 finalist, who could be appearing in his final French Open, recalled: "It was the last straw. I remember before the quarter-final match that I played against Kei Nishikori that something wasn't right.

"I'd had issues with my hip for a really long time and if you look at some of my results in the year leading up to that, I had lost multiple matches from two sets to one up.