Early arrival to hardcourts pays off for Murray

Britain's third-ranked Andy Murray has spent a week adjusting to hardcourts ahead of the ATP Washington Open, his earliest arrival to any event this year paying off with confident strokes.

The 28-year-old Scotsman seeks his 35th career ATP title and fourth of the year in his first tour event since reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals, where he lost to Roger Federer.

Top seed Murray makes his first Washington appearance since 2006, when he lost to France's Arnaud Clement in the final. He arrived last Tuesday, cutting short his rest to begin his training push to the US Open that starts in four weeks.

"I haven't actually hit a ball on a hardcourt since Miami. That has been four or five months," Murray said Monday. "This morning was the first time that I started to feel more comfortable on the courts, get used to them again. It takes quite a lot of time to get used to the conditions."

The field also features eighth-ranked Marin Cilic, the first reigning US Open champion in the US capital since Andre Agassi in 2000, and 2014 US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori, the Japanese world number five who could meet Cilic again in a semi-final.

"It's a strong field, maybe the strongest cutoff ever," Murray said. "It's going to be a tough event for sure."

Murray visited the White House on Saturday and posted photographs on the Internet, although he was disappointed US President Barack Obama was not at home.

"When I was here last time I didn't see much of the city."

Murray is 48-7 this year with titles at Queen's, Madrid and Munich. He also reached the finals at Miami and the Australian Open and the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the French Open.

"One of the things I spoke about at the beginning of the year was consistency. That has been a positive," Murray said. "The year as a whole, there has been some progress. Hopefully I get on a good run now on the hardcourts to the end of the year."

Murray hopes to add to his Grand Slam trophy haul at Flushing Meadows, having already taken the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles.

"I've played well in all of the Slams," Murray said. "The French Open was the best I've ever played on the clay and at Wimbledon Roger played a really good match."

After Wimbledon, Murray was the hero as Britain beat France 3-1 in the Davis Cup, advancing to a home September semi-final against Australia.

"It's a good opportunity," Murray said. "France was a huge win for us, one I wasn't probably expecting. We're in a good position but Australia for us is a very difficult match with the depth they have.

"It would be amazing if we could make the final. I certainly didn't expect that at the beginning of the year."

Murray is being coached by Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman while coach Amelie Mauresmo is on a maternity leave that is expected to last the rest of the year.
Source: AFP