Murray Arrives in Australia, Getting Ready to Play Brisbane

Written by: Staff on 30th December 2011

Murray Arrives in Australia, Getting Ready to Play Brisbane

Britain's Andy Murray returns the ball during his Group A match against David Ferrer of Spain at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals tennis tournament at O2 Arena in London, Britain, 21 November 2011. EPA/ROGER PARKER |

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Britain’s Andy Murray was the first of the world’s top four to arrive Down Under for the Australian Open that begins in 17 days time and the Scot showed he had completely recovered from the groin injury that cut short his progress at last month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Just a couple of hours after landing in Brisbane following a long journey from his training base in Miami, the 24 year-old world no.4 underwent an intensive two hours practice session in intense humidity at the Queensland Tennis Centre, site of next week’s Brisbane International where Murray begins his 2012 schedule.

“I feel pretty fit and have been doing a lot of work,” Murray told the Brisbane Courier Mail newspaper. “Everyone wants to get some matches in because its been a long break.”

In his last vist to Australia, Murray reached his third Grand Slam final, ultimately going down to Novak Djokovic in Melbourne last year. For the time being, though, Murray’s focus is on claiming the Brisbane title at his first attempt. For the last couple of years he has preferred to play the Hopman Cup in Perth.

Brisbane International tournament director Cameron Pearson was an overjoyed spectator. “He looks great and in good shape,” said Pearson who confirmed top seeded Murray is not scheduled to play his first-round match until Tuesday. “He just punched out a couple of hours of training.”

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