Roland Garros has traditionally been an unhappy hunting ground for British players, but Cameron Norrie heads to the French Open as one of the world's most in-form players.
Norrie has reached two ATP Tour finals over the last month in Estoril and Lyon and claimed the best victory of his career over US Open champion Dominic Thiem in the second round in France.
His 23 tour-level match wins in 2021 – 12 of them on clay – mean he has already surpassed his best annual tally less than five months in and he heads into the French Open with confidence sky high.
"When I'm moving well and I can make the points physical and tough in the lungs a little bit, the rallies get longer and longer, I think it's always in my favour," he said.
"Clay could be my best surface but I think I'm doing a lot of other things well that can benefit me on other surfaces as well. I think I'm serving well and hitting the spots well in big moments.
"All those other things are allowing me to have my best chances on the clay. I think the biggest thing is I'm just enjoying the tennis and enjoying the matches and the battles I've been having."
Norrie's ranking of 45 is four below his career best, with the coronavirus-related changes still making it harder to move up, but a good marker of his form this year is that he stands 14th in the annual race, which only uses results from 2021.
"I'll take it right now being top 15 in the race but it means nothing, I just want to keep building," said the 25-year-old, who has been the last Briton standing at two of the last three grand slams.
"I've got a lot of work to do and I've got to still keep proving myself day in, day out and keep riding the camel – I like that metaphor."
In the race, Norrie is two places above Dan Evans, who has also had a strong clay season, meaning there could well be a race for British number one later in the year – not that either man will be putting much store by that.
"I'm not too bothered about it," said Norrie. "I'm happy to keep doing my thing and let those things take care of themselves. The goal is world number one, not British number one."
Norrie is the first graduate from the Lawn Tennis Association's Pro Scholarship Programme designed to support the best 16 to 24-year-olds having switched his allegiance from New Zealand, where he grew up, to Britain as a teenager.
"It's going to be pretty strange living so close to Queen's and not being able to stay at home for that and for Wimbledon but I think the grass is going to be the last little bit where the bubbles are pretty strict.
"Hopefully they can get some decent capacity with the crowds and there will be some atmosphere. If there is, great, I can use that to my advantage and show the British public what I'm capable of and show them some of my level I've been playing this year.
"I'm just looking forward to having a British summer and hopefully people getting around the tennis and on the Pimm's at Wimbledon."
