ANDY Murray swaps a tennis racquet for a boomerang in a new poster to mark his progress in the Australian Open.

The 26-year-old, from Dunblane, is portrayed by graphic designer Nial Smith, who has previously depicted the tennis player atop the Chrysler building in New York and in a parody of Gladiator. Murray won his first-round match against Japan's Go Soeda, 6-1 6-1 6-3 and will now face French qualifier Vincent Millot in the second round.

However, Murray warned the Australian Open it risked damaging the reputation of tennis after players were forced to play in searing heat. At 5.45pm Melbourne temperatures topped out at 42.2°C.

Murray said: "It's definitely something that you maybe have to look at a little bit. As much as it's easy to say the conditions are safe - a few people said there's doctors saying it's fine - it only takes one bad thing to happen.

"And it looks terrible for the whole sport when people are collapsing, ball kids are collapsing, people in the stands are collapsing. That's obviously not great.

"I know when I went out to hit before the match, the conditions were very, very tough. Anyone's going to struggle in that heat."