• Australian Open, Day Two

Murray not fazed by unknown Sousa

Andy Murray combated the heat against Robin Haase, but it's set to get hotter in Melbourne © Getty Images

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Andy Murray admits he will be in the dark when he takes on Joao Sousa in the second round of the Australian Open, but it is not a prospect that fills him with dread.

Murray made a superb start to the first major of the year, crushing Robin Haase in 97 minutes. His reward is a meeting with Sousa, ranked 100 in the world, following his win over John-Patrick Smith.

Sousa has never come across Murray's radar, but the No. 3 seed is in confident mood following his win over Haase.

"I don't know too much about him, but I've seen him play a couple of matches during the clay court season last year in Barcelona," Murray said. "I saw him play. I also saw him a little bit at the French Open, as well. I've never practiced against him; never played against him."

Reflecting on his win over Haase, Murray said: "It was a good start. It was very different conditions to what it's been the last four, five days. So the court was playing much different. Bouncing a lot higher. It's much livelier.

"I thought I did a pretty good job from the start of dictating the points and not giving him too many freebies.

"It's always nice to get through the first round of any tournament, but especially here."

Murray was roared on by a band of supporters who have followed him at the Australian Open for some years and he has challenged them to work on some new material.

He said: "I think it's the same group of guys that come every single year. They've been there, yeah, I would say at least four or five years. They've been coming to watch. Try to sort them out some tickets when we can.

"They're good support and pretty amusing songs. Although I think they haven't come up with too many new ones, so challenge them to that."

The temperature is set to ramp up later in the week and Murray is aware of the need to prepare for a sapping occasion.

He said "Obviously preferably when there's a bit of shade on the court in temperatures like that. It obviously helps. But half the draw's going to be in the same situation. Whether you play at 11:00am, I mean, it's going to be really warm in the evening as well, but obviously not quite so bad.

"But for a majority of the day, it's going to be tough conditions to play in, and need to be ready for it."

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