ROLAND GARROS — There was some debate about whether Andy Murray had tears in his eyes as he left Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday night.

If he did, it could have been sadness, for what seems likely to have been his last French Open, but it could also have been embarrassment after having been, frankly, duffed up by Stan Wawrinka.

There is no great shame in that: Wawrinka is, like him, a three-time grand slam champion. But, like Murray, he is a shadow of his former self. The 2015 French Open winner will turn 40 next March and has not been in a grand slam quarter-final since he was closer to 30.

Perhaps the most painful thing about defeat for Murray was that he, two years younger, has faded faster and fallen further than a(nother) direct contemporary: they first met nearly 20 years ago and last night was their 23rd clash in total. Murray has won 13 of them but on clay Wawrinka has always had the upper hand.

The surface has been the relative pitfall of Murray’s career, although he remains Britain’s most successful man on the surface, the first since before the war to reach the French Open final, and is fourth on the all-time list of Open era match wins at Roland Garros.

For someone who does not claim to be a clay-court specialist, he has done alright. And maybe such a humbling defeat to Wawrinka will stop him coming back. He has nothing left to prove on Parisian clay, and all this loss did was remind him of things that are now and in some cases have always been a struggle.

“Physically tennis is not easy for me nowadays,” Murray said afterwards.

“It’s hard, and clay has always been a surface that, since the very beginning of my career, I’ve had back issues on. It’s something I’m sort of used to, to be honest.”

His serve speeds suffered in the third set and he even started to visibly “hurple”, to borrow a Scots word that does not quite mean limp.

But he remained bullish about playing doubles with Dan Evans, optimistic about some generous scheduling that would allow him three or four days to prepare for the opening round.

Ideally, Murray and Evans would win, at most, two rounds. Spending any longer in Paris playing a format that is not a priority for either of them would surely be folly. In previous years, Murray has been at his angriest when the grass-court swing has not gone his way. He almost retired on the spot after Wimbledon defeat to John Isner in 2022, even unusually entering the post-SW19 grass tournament in Newport.

This now, probably his last dance on grass, carries even greater weight.

In that sense, while a return to England would surely be the most logical next step, a relaxed few days of doubles preparation is preferable to grinding through more rounds of the singles, playing virtually every day and having little time to let his body recover.

“My body isn’t what it was 10 years ago, I’m fully aware of that,” Murray added.

“It takes a lot of time and effort to get it in a position to go out there and compete. It’s not always perfect.

“But it is what it is and I still enjoy giving it a go and trying to get myself out there and, yeah, be as competitive as possible.”

Those words smack of the same sentiment he expressed after winning two Challenger titles last summer, victories that would have meant nothing 10 years ago but meant everything now. The goalposts have moved and Murray is, as much as anything, playing against himself.

“We’re getting closer to the end,” said Wawrinka, referring to the advancing years of both himself and Murray, who combined for the second-oldest match in the last 50 years at Roland Garros.

The closer we get, the harder Murray seems to find it to stop. But if he wants to be competitive, he will realise that Sunday night was not – and it might save him from himself.

Even if this is not, somehow, his final summer, this should be his last French Open. There is nothing to prove, and little more to add. This is a fond adieu to the tournament, not au revoir.