THE early rounds of Grand Slams are normally expected to be calm waters for Andy Murray but at the French Open sharks seem to be everywhere.

Andrey Kuznetsov, a 26-year-old Russian ranked 85th, is a kind first-round draw on paper but the danger signs are there. He beat Fabio Fognini earlier in the clay season and arrived in Paris fresh from a run to the semi-finals of the Geneva Open and a close match with Stan Wawrinka.

Murray has beaten Kuznetsov in both their previous meetings but lost a set in the third round of the US Open in 2014 and the Russian will seek to exploit his opponent’s shaky confidence. The world No 1 has won only five matches since February and was well beaten by Fognini in the opening round in Rome last week.

The Scot at least has lower expectations on his shoulders this year, and said: “That can [help], but ultimately it doesn’t really matter when you get on the court what anyone says, whether it’s positive or negative.

“It’s how you deal with situations out there. Generally, when you’re playing well, you deal with situations better, because you have won matches and you’re confident and you’re feeling really good.

“When you’re struggling a little bit, it’s a little bit harder to find your way through tough moments in matches. But that will come.”

That has certainly been evident since Murray returned from an elbow injury last month, with the Scot’s forehand and serve letting him down at key moments.

He will no doubt have focused on those areas of his game with coach Ivan Lendl this week as well as trying to sharpen his movement. Lendl’s presence generally has a demonstrable effect on Murray’s game, with the Scot’s loss to Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open in January a rare grand slam failure for the pair.

Murray’s former coach Brad Gilbert has no doubt other players will now feel Murray is a gettable scalp: “Andy is definitely playing a little more defensive-minded,” he said.

“Having that balance between offence and defence, that has been an issue. Obviously he hasn’t played his normal standard in the big tournaments.

“He hasn’t made a quarter-finals yet of any [Masters] 1000 or Australia. Murray owned a lot of guys, you start losing a little bit, guys feel like they have some belief.

“I still think at 30, he’s a young 30. He has plenty of time to turn it around. I never saw this bit of a bad patch coming. If you would have told me at the start of the year he would finish the year any lower than two, I would have been surprised.

“Knowing Andy as well as I do, I know one thing. He’s not a satisfied guy. He’s not materialistic. He loves the fight. He’s not about the show and the bling. He loves the guts and working hard.”

Meanwhile, fellow No 1 Angelique Kerber became the first women’s top seed in the Open era to lose in the opening round of the French Open.

The German has been badly out of form since the beginning of the year, despite sitting at the top of the world rankings, and the only surprise about her 6-2 6-2 loss to Ekaterina Makarova yesterday was the magnitude of it.

Russian Makarova, ranked 40, won five of the first six games and, although she came under more pressure in the second set, she kept Kerber at arm’s length. The top seed dropped serve six times and made 25 unforced errors in a match that lasted an hour and 22 minutes.

Makarova, who has made the fourth round here twice, was a tough opponent for a player who does not like clay and has reached just one WTA Tour final all year.

It is a second consecutive first-round loss at Roland Garros for Kerber, who won the Australian and US Open titles last year and reached the Wimbledon final.