PARIS: Britain's Andy Murray said he would go into Wimbledon in the form of his life despite his French Open quarter-final defeat to Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.
Murray, the third seed, lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 to the No 12-seeded claycourt specialist in what was his first Roland Garros last-eight tie.
The 22-year-old Scot, though, has enjoyed a fantastic year to date, ousting Serbia's Novak Djokovic from the top three in the world rankings following tournament victories in Doha, Rotterdam and Miami.
Murray has also impressed on clay - reaching the semi-finals at the Monte Carlo Masters and the quarter-finals in Madrid - and feels his improved showing on the dirt proves that he's becoming a more complete player.
"The year as a whole has been my best so far," he said. "I've won a lot of matches, a lot more matches on clay this year than I had in the past.
"I've probably won double the amount of matches that I had won in my life on clay before this stretch.
"I don't feel like I'm going to be rusty at all going into the grass (season), because obviously I played a lot and still feel confident.
"It's not like a match like this (against Gonzalez) is going to make me feel down about it or anything.
"I'll just go and improve and work on some things over the next week or so, and hopefully be playing well on the grass."
This year's Wimbledon takes place from June 22-July 5 and Murray will hope to improve on his showing in last year's tournament, when he battled through to his first major quarter-final before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
Murray has had to adapt his all-action style to cope with the unique demands of the clay game, but says the adjustment to playing on grass will not be too problematic.
"The thing that's different is that the height that the ball bounces at is the main thing here (at Roland Garros)," he said.
"Some of the kick-serves get up way above your head.
"On grass, it's always coming through nice and low. It's kind of sore on the hamstrings the first few days.
"You just have to hit it - you don't have to, but I try and hit a flatter ball on grass.
"That's the one big change. You don't hit a whole lot of flat shots on the clay."
Source:China Daily/Agencies
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