ONE BIG DUST-UP
Champion Murray relishing his Centre Court battle against flamboyant but ‘humble’ character Brown
ANDY MURRAY is prepared for more friendly fire today as he faces dreadlocked Jamaican-German Dustin Brown on Centre Court.
The defending champion revealed how he chatted with his opponent Alexander Bublik during rain delays which held up his opening win.
And now the top seed will take on the world No.97 who shocked Rafa Nadal here in 2015.
The flamboyant Brown, who used to live in a VW Campervan, has promised similar on-court fireworks today. But Murray said away from tennis, the “humble” 32-year-old is a different character.
“Dustin comes out with incredible shots and is very entertaining to watch and it pretty ‘out there’ on the court,” said the Scot.
“But away from the court he is a very quiet, respectful and humble guy.
“He is very different to how he plays the game. We get on well and he is a nice guy.
“We were on the same team at the International Premier Tennis League when I played in Dubai. We spent a bit of time together there and had a bit of a group chat with all of the players on the team.
“From time to time we message each other.
“It could be anything, not just tennis.
“You might think that because of the way he plays on court, maybe he is the same away from it.”
Murray added: “It should be a good match to watch but although I get on well with Dustin, and he’s a great guy, I doubt we shall be stopping halfway through to discuss how it’s going.” The flamboyant Brown, who lost his only previous meeting with Murray at the 2010 US Open, is usually the crowd favourite in his matches.
“Who said I won’t be against Andy?” he smiled.
But he wants to be taken seriously as a player as he seeks another famous upset in SW19.
“I’m going to have to try and play the same way as against Rafa, play aggressive,” he said. “When you grow up and start playing tennis these are the matches you want. It’s going to be fun.
“And it’s going to be nice to see, because most of the time if I am going to play these guys, if I was going to pick a surface it would be grass.” Although Murray won their only previous encounter, it was a long while ago, and on a different surface.
“It will also be nice to see how things look after seven years, ”Brown added. “The last time we played it was a close first set and after that he won pretty comfortably.”
As long as he is fully fit, Murray should have the ground-strokes to pick off Brown as he serves big and charges the net.
The Scot is taking two ice baths a day to treat the sore hip he revealed has been a problem since his semifinal defeat at the French Open.
“It is just something I have had to monitor my whole career. It has been really sore for a couple of weeks,’’ he said.
“I needed to take a few days off. It is not like a horrific injury in my knee.
“Just in time it is something I need to look after.”