Murray faces awkward match against Gasquet

When Andy Murray plays Richard Gasquet in the first round of the French Open at Roland Garros, there will be three participants: the Scotsman, the Frenchman and the fabulously haughty, opinionated Parisian tennis public.

For Gasquet, it is an opportunity to remind the Parisians of his elegant tennis, to show that he has survived the doping controversy of the night he spent in a Miami nightclub, French-kissing a girl called "Pamela" and inadvertently putting cocaine into his system.

For Murray, it is a nasty draw, opening against someone once known as ‘Baby Federer', a former world No 7 who has been playing some fine clay-court tennis on the Cote d'Azur this week to reach yesterday's final in Nice. In the French capital's 16th arrondissement, watching tennis is a participation sport, with the spectators never slow to whistle or hiss when someone or something does not meet with their approval.

At the other three slams, a player from the host nation would expect unconditional support, but not in Paris, and Gasquet, a shy and nervous man, has had a complicated relationship with his public, once disclosing that he feared how they would react "if things go wrong".

For all his talent, including that wonderful backhand, Gasquet has never had a good French Open, as he has reached the third round just once, although he leads Murray 2-1 in the head to head. It is hardly any surprise that his best result at the slams, a Wimbledon semifinal in 2007, was on the other side of the Channel.

In Paris, much could depend on how the spectators treat Gasquet. If he has a poor start, will they cheer or hiss?

The locals have it in them to turn on Gasquet. They could also help Gasquet bump Murray out of the tournament.

The Parisians and Gasquet have not seen each other for three years. He missed the 2008 tournament through injury and, last season, he was serving a doping suspension. Gasquet's "cocaine kisses" came in Florida last season and he gave a urine sample that contained traces of the drug, which resulted in a suspension for two and a half months, so he missed the French Open, as well as Wimbledon.

"It was a difficult time for him," Murray said. Though an independent drugs tribunal and the Court of Arbitration for Sport accepted Gasquet's story about "Pamela", it was never going to be a straightforward return.

This week, he is ranked 68 on the computer, 64 places below Murray. Yet, ominously for Murray, Gasquet has been playing well, as last week he won a second-tier Challenger title in Bordeaux, and on Friday he defeated Italy's Potito Starace 7-6, 7-6 to reach Saturday's final in Nice, where he will play Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

It has been two years since Murray and Gasquet's last match, when the Scot came from two sets down to reach the quarter-finals of the 2008 Wimbledon Championships.