Andy Murray is preparing for the French Open by participating in the Madrid Masters. The organisers made a controversial decision by changing the court colours from red to blue and as a result; the organisers have decided to return to the iconic red courts. The surface was also deemed too slippery for the tennis player.

Murray, who incidentally missed last year’s tournament through injury, has been practising on the Madrid courts and is impressed by the playing surface. “The courts are fantastic. They’re excellent.”

Defending Madrid masters champion Roger Federer hopes to see better tennis this term compared to previous years. “i don’t know if it was due to the colour of the court, but this tournament has in the past, had issues with quality. From what I’m hearing from other players, it’s a good quality court and hopefully we’ll see better tennis this year.”

Home favourite Rafa Nadal has also spoken of the courts, “the only thing I can say is thank you to the tournament for the money they have invested to have the highest quality courts here. I think the courts last year were not up to the levels we needed”.

As well as Murray, Federer and Nadal participating in the Spanish capital, World number 1 Novak Djokovic, Spaniard David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych will fancy their chances in the tournament.

Murray, Berdych and Djokovic find themselves in the top half of the draw whilst Nadal, Federer and Ferrer make up the bottom half of the draw.

You can catch all the action on Sky Sports.