Murray unimpressed with British showing

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:36

The British number one was the only home man left standing after the first round, with just Elena Baltacha for company in the women’s tournament.

They are the only survivors from 11 British starters and Murray said: “It’s disappointing. The depth needs to get way better. It’s not acceptable. That’s not picking out any players in particular because I watched some of them play and some of them played well.”

He added: “But they aren’t at the same level as a lot of the guys. They don’t play at this level too often because they’re not ranked that high so when the tight moments come they don’t play as well. It’s not good.”

Murray, however, admitted he had only time to think about himself as he prepares for a potentially difficult second-round match against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis tomorrow.

The Scot was far from convincing in his four-set first-round victory over American Robert Kendrick and said: “I’m worrying about my own games and my own tennis. I’m going to take care of my own business and not worry about what’s going on with the other players.

“When you start doing that you get distracted and you’re not putting 100% focus on yourself which is what I’m going to need to do the next couple of weeks.”

Murray insists there is no way he will allow himself to get ahead of himself and he is under no illusions that if he is to be around on the final weekend his game will have to improve markedly.

“Obviously I’m going to have to win five more matches,” said Murray. “And they’re going to get tougher every round. I know what I need to get there.

“But I’m not going to start worrying about reaching the final yet. I need to focus on the next match. I’ve got a very tough opponent. Gulbis has caused some problems in the past and is a huge hitter of the ball. I’m going to have to be on my game to beat him.”

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