French Open 2014: Andy Murray to meet Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev in first round

Andy Murray will probably have to beat the Australian Open champion, Stanislas Wawrinka, the Parisian king, Rafael Nadal, and the favourite, Novak Djokovic, to win the French Open, if form and logic still count in a season of mounting uncertainty, the Guardian reports. No fall of the dice was going to make a monumental task any easier, but at least Friday's draw handed the Scot a first-round opponent he has beaten in their only encounter, when he conceded only two games six years ago on the hard court of St Petersburg: Andrey Golubev, the 26-year-old Kazakh, ranked 55 in the world. However, Golubev did beat Wawrinka in the Davis Cup in April. Philipp Kohlschreiber and the injured Richard Gasquet are other potential roadblocks for Murray, seeded seventh here in the absence of Juan Martín del Potro, who is still recovering from a wrist injury. Murray has been to the quarters or better three times in Paris - including the semis three years ago - and, although his form has flickered since his return from back surgery, he showed the very best of it in losing to Nadal in three high-quality sets in the quarter-finals in Rome last week. If the world No8 does well, his ATP ranking points will receive a welcome boost, given that he missed Roland Garros last year. Nadal, chasing his ninth French Open title but arriving here with three clay-court defeats in a season for the first time in a decade, is on course for a quarter-final against the man he drubbed in last year's anti-climactic final, David Ferrer. Nadal's first match should be a stroll, against the 31-year-old American, Robby Ginepri, 276 places adrift of him in the rankings. Beyond Ginepri, however, is one of the emerging young players who have made the season a bit of a lottery, the Austrian Dominic Thiem, who beat Wawrinka in Madrid and earlier in the year took Murray to three sets in Rotterdam. However, he has not played since handing Feliciano López a walkover in Madrid. Details also at