ANDY MURRAY has backed James Ward to give a good account of himself when he faces defending champion Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon first round.
The Championships get underway today, with Great Britain Davis Cup winner Ward taking on the world number one on Centre Court at 1pm.
Murray, who has been beaten by the Serbian in the Australian and French Open finals this year, has encouraged his compatriot to rise to the occasion.
"I think the most important thing for him is to go out and enjoy it," he said.
"Obviously it's an incredibly difficult draw. But he's getting the chance to play against the best player in the world on Centre Court at Wimbledon. If you aren't excited or pumped for that, then you're playing the wrong sport.
"I think Wardy will go out there and play well. He has played his best tennis normally when he's been in the biggest occasions. He's done it a few times in Davis Cup, he has played well here in the past and at Queen's.
"Regardless of the result, hopefully this can be a boost for him, to play a match like this, get his year back on track."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here