Murray vows to serve up better after a nervy start to Australian Open

Sir Andy Murray will be hoping today’s Australian Open second round opponent won’t be as awkward as his opening rival.

He won his first round tie against Ukrainian Illya Marchenko in straight sets but it was far from plain sailing for the Dunblane ace.

Top seed for the first time in a Grand Slam tournament - the first British man to do that since Bunny Austin at the 1939 Wimbledon tournament - he made a nervous start and lost the first game with three double faults, but hit back to serve for the set at 5-3.

Marchenko, however, broke him again to draw level, only for Murray to claim the set 7-5.

His opponent, ranked No 95 in the world, took the lead in the second set but the world No 1 fought to force a tie-break, upping the intensity when it mattered to win.

The effort seemed to affect Marchenko in the third set and Murray took advantage to win it 6-2 and go through to meet Russia’s Andrey Rublev in round two.

“I don’t think it was the best match,”said Andy afterwards.

“The conditions were pretty different to what we’ve been practising in.

“Last week’s been pretty cool. When it’s like that, the ball is bouncing a bit lower and it is a bit easier to control. I was a bit tentative because of that.

“And I didn’t serve that well either. So you end up having to work really hard on a lot of your service games when it’s like that.”

Meanwhile, Brother Jamie and Bruno Soares will set out to defend the men’s doubles title they won in 2016 later this week.

They had a shock defeat in the final of the Apia International in Sydney when the unseeded Dutch duo of Wesley Kooholf and Matwe Middlekoop beat them 6-3, 7-5.

At the Australian Open, Murray and Soares are seeded No 2 behind French pair Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut and in round one they face a tricky tie against American couple Sam Querrey and Donald Young.