Murray eager to clear first hurdle

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:13

Twelve months ago, Murray was bundled out in the first round by the then unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was the eventual runner-up to Novak Djokovic.

“(Last year’s upset is) a good thing if anything,” said the world number four. “Losing in the first round was tough but Tsonga is seeded five this year so he’s obviously a very, very good player, and I had my chance to win there so I think it’s a good thing that it happened to me. I’m not going to take any of these matches lightly.”

Murray overcame Romanian Pavel 6-3 3-6 3-6 6-1 6-4 when they met in the first round of the US Open back in 2005.

“He won’t have changed a whole lot in his game,” Murray added. “He’s 34 now and I watched him play quite a lot when I was younger and he’s obviously a talented player.

“I just need to focus on my own game. I’ve played well the last few weeks and practice has gone well.

“I just think at the start of slams you need to really focus right from the first ball and the first set. You don’t want to have any unnecessarily long matches early in the tournament, especially in this heat.”

Murray is in the same half of the draw as top seed Rafael Nadal, who opens his campaign against Christophe Rochus. If all goes according to plan, the pair should meet in the semi-finals.

In the other half of the draw, Novak Djokovic will begin the defence of his title against a qualifier, which will be decided on Saturday, and should have a straightforward path to the quarter-finals where he could meet any one of David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick, Tommy Robredo or Philipp Kohlschreiber, provided there are no upsets.

Three-time champion Roger Federer faces Andreas Seppi in the first round and is likely to play former world number one Carlos Moya in the second.

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