Australia's Marinko Matosevic did the unthinkable when he incurred the wrath of Andy Murray's mother and coach last summer but when the two men meet in the second round of the Australian Open tomorrow, all will be forgiven.

It was at the French Open in June that a brave or perhaps, foolish Matosevic questioned the wisdom of Murray's choice in hiring a female coach in former world No 1 Mauresmo.'

To add insult to insult, Matosevic said he would never hire a woman because: "I don't think that highly of the women's game".

"It's all equal rights these days," he said in Paris. "Got to be politically correct. So, yeah, someone's got to give it a go. Won't be me."

It was a comment that caused some offence at Roland Garros but Murray, who felt comfortable hiring Mauresmo in part because he was originally coached by his mother, said all was forgiven.

"Yeah he came and spoke to me immediately about it when it was in the papers and apologised and spoke to my mum about it and apologised, and apologised to Amelie," Murray said yesterday.

"He (is the sort of guy who) can say something and he doesn't necessarily mean anything bad with it, if that's his opinion," Murray continued.

"If he doesn't want to work with a female coach than that's absolutely fine and that's the case with many players.

"But I'm not offended by it and I get on absolutely fine with him. He's just a bit different. When someone's different, people want to have a go at them but he's a good person."

Always vocal and occasionally volatile on the court, Matosevic is into the second round of a grand slam for only the third time and Murray has not dropped a set in winning their two previous meetings.

But the Scot, who eased past Yuki Bhambri of India in round one, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, said he expected a tough match.

"He's one of those guys, who in some ways gets a bit of a hard time," he said.

"He's a bit different, he's a bit out there, but he works exceptionally hard, he doesn't mess around when he's practicing and he respects all of the players and he's a good guy. I get on well with him.

"As a player he's just a bit erratic but when he plays well he's a tough guy to play against because he's strong, he's a good ball striker, he's a very good athlete, he is just a bit up and down from time to time."

All seems rosy in the Murray garden at the moment with the Scot fully fit and enjoying his coaching relationship with Mauresmo.

Though he let rip one of his classic monologues midway through the third set against Bhambri, a set he trailed 4-1 in before bouncing back, Murray said some of the focus on his on-court musings were probably overstated.

"When things don't go people's way, it's normal to do it," he said. "If I went to play five a sides with my Dad's friends and someone misplaces a pass, they're just playing for fun, but everyone's reaction is to say something about it.

"It's a natural reaction, it's how the brains works. What matters is that you don't let these things affect you, that you remind yourself about all the positive things you're doing and to try and be as lenient as possible with yourself.

"It's a skill you need to learn, it's not something that comes naturally."

That learning process comes with experience but Murray has also been using a sports psychologist again lately, having said at one stage in his career that he didn't see the point in it.

The process is clearly paying dividends, with Murray's general on-court demeanour far more upbeat, all of which bodes well for a good run here.

If he's going to go deep into the tournament, though, he's almost certainly going to have to get past Roger Federer, the 17-times grand slam champion.

Federer beat Murray in the quarter-finals here last year and the Swiss looked sharp in his opening-round 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 win over Yen Hsun-Lu.

Few people believed Rafa Nadal when he said before the tournament began that he had very little chance of victory, coming back from injury as he was.

And the Spaniard duly produced an impressive performance in trouncing Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in round one. The secret is out of the bag. He's a contender again.

The women's event burst into action on day one with a slew of upsets, the most notable a three-set loss for the No 5 seed Ana Ivanovic, beaten by Karin Knapp of Italy.

Second seed Maria Sharapova sailed through, however, a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Petra Martic of Croatia and third seed Simona Halep also reached round two.