Winning Wimbledon is not something Andy Murray is likely to forget in a hurry but, when he steps on to court at the Rogers Cup in Montreal today for his first competitive match in a month, he will get a nice reminder of his achievement from the on-court announcer.
For years, Murray has had to listen to the successes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic being read out as the players warm-up but now, having added Wimbledon to his US Open and Olympic triumph, he will hear: 'Andy Murray, Wimbledon champion'.
Murray, with one eye on the imminent defence of his US Open crown, will begin his bid for the singles title tomorrow against Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov or Marcel Granollers of Spain, either of whom will provide a stern test in his first outing after a holiday and a short training block in Miami. So Murray will look to iron out a few kinks and shake his muscles into action when he partners Colin Fleming, from Linlithgow, in the first round of the doubles against France's Julien Benneteau and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.
Murray stepped in when Fleming and his usual partner, Jonny Marray, missed out on a place in the main draw and will try to play himself into an event he has won twice before, once in Montreal and once in Toronto. The world No.2 insists that adding to his grand slam tally is more important than becoming world No.1 but knows that success in the Masters 1000 events can help bridge the gap between No.1 Djokovic and himself.
He arrived in Montreal almost a week ago and is raring to go but he has a tough draw - Ernests Gulbis, Juan Martin Del Potro and M ilos Raonic are all in his quarter - and knows better than to think too far ahead, especially after a break. "It will be a very tough [first] match," he said. "Granollers won [on clay in Kitzbuehel] and Dimitrov is obviously very talented. I will have to be patient with myself, not expect too much, just try to fight for every point."
Roger Federer is missing because of a back injury but Rafael Nadal returns after his first-round defeat at Wimbledon and is in the same half of the draw as Djokovic.
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