Murray insists he will be ready for Australian Open
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Murray is confident he will be match-sharp for the Australian Open despite having spent little time on court in his opening two matches at the Hopman Cup.
The world number four opted to play at the round-robin tournament in Perth this year instead of defending his title at Doha because of the guarantee of three singles matches.
Murray has, however, been on court for less than two hours as he breezed past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-2 6-2 on Monday before an even more impressive 6-4 6-1 win over the world number 27 Philipp Kohlschreiber in 57 minutes today.
Unless Great Britain reach the final, Murray has just one match left in Perth, against Russia's Igor Andreev on Friday, and is not scheduled to play again before the Australian Open begins in Melbourne on January 18.
The 22-year-old is not concerned, however, saying that the additional workload of playing mixed doubles at the Hopman Cup will give him the match practice he needs.
"It's just spending time on court that you want," said Murray, after he and playing partner Laura Robson secured a 2-1 win over Germany to top Group B.
"Obviously if the games go longer that's a good thing, but because we go straight out to play the mixed then if you look at it today I probably had two and half hours on the court in total and I also warmed up for half an hour as well.
"It is enough. I don't want to play loads."
Murray also revealed he was still getting used to the pace of the balls and courts in Australia.
The Hopman Cup uses the same Wilson balls and hardcourt surface that players will be faced with at Melbourne Park and Murray admitted it took some adapting.
"I started serving really well with the new balls and then as the first set progressed I started missing a lot of first serves into the net," Murray said.
"I haven't played a match for five or six weeks so it's probably just that. But the Wilson balls are quick and then they do slow down a lot so it does take a bit to get used to.
"It's just little adjustments."
Teenager Robson produced a battling display as she lost her opening rubber with world number 22 Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7/5) 6-3.
The 20-year-old Lisicki is one of the rising talents in women's tennis, but was fully extended by Robson who could have even taken the first set when she was broken at 5-4 ahead before losing a tight tie-breaker.
Robson has now lost both her matches at the Burswood Dome, but felt she improved on her first-up loss to Yaroslava Shvedova.
"I made a few more volleys than on Monday so it was more impressive," said the 15-year-old.
"I can still improve on everything, but the match was a lot better than Monday.
"I had chances in the first set, but she just played better in the end."
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