British number one Andy Murray says he is taking nothing for granted as he prepares to open up his Australian Open campaign against Go Soeda on Tuesday.
Murray is set to play his first Grand Slam match since undergoing back surgery in September and on paper he could not have a better opening round clash in Melbourne.
The two players have never met before but as you would expect Murray has done his homework on the 29-year-old, who is ranked only 112th, and he knows what to expect.
“The Japanese players, a lot of them are fairly similar in the way that they play. They play from the baseline. They like to take the ball fairly early. They hit quite flat. Backhand’s maybe a bit better. They compete well.
“I’ll need to be ready. I haven’t played a lot of matches, so I’m not going to look past anyone.”
Meanwhile, Murray says he is not putting himself under any pressure to perform like Rafa Nadal did after he returned to training.
“How Rafa recovered so well is pretty amazing but obviously coming back and going straight into a slam in your second tournament is different.
“Playing best-of-five-set matches is different, it takes time to build up that match practice.
“I have to be realistic but in some ways you can see that if you put the work in, you have the right attitude on the court, you can get back fairly quickly.”
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