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Murray keen to peak at US Open

Andy Murray heads into a Grand Slam as a defending champion for the first time © AP

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Andy Murray is relishing the prospect returning to the US Open as defending champion.

The world No. 2, who followed his maiden grand slam triumph in New York in 2012 with victory at Wimbledon in July, concedes that he will face a new type of pressure on his return to Flushing Meadows.

But the Scot is looking forward to dealing with it as he bids to collect a third grand slam title.

"It's a new experience, so I don't know how I'm going to respond," Murray told Sky Sports.

"You know, I'm staying in the same hotel as last year, and I'll try and stick to a similar sort of schedule and try and get comfortable there as soon as I arrive in New York. I'm looking forward to it."

"I get excited always for the grand slams, and there's some pressures that you can deal with well and some you don't.

"Hopefully, this will be one that I deal with well. I've always enjoyed playing in New York. I hope I've got the energy there and the desire to have a good tournament."

Murray also insisted that it was important not to read too much into his performances at the back-to-back Masters 1000 events in Cincinnati and Canada.

The 26-year-old fell to Ernests Gulbis in his second match since Wimbledon in Montreal, but went on to reach the doubles final with fellow Scot Colin Fleming.

Latvian Gulbis could have set up a second-round clash with Murray again, but he failed to overcome Mikhail Youzhny, losing 7-5 6-3. But while Murray, a two-time Cincinnati Masters champion, would love to win the event once more, he is keen not to put himself under too much pressure before heading to New York.

"Sometimes I played really well here and sometimes I haven't," Murray added. "I need to try and get some matches in because that would help for the US Open.

"Last year I didn't play particularly well in the two warm-up tournaments. I only played one match in Canada and two matches here and I won the US Open. So I'm not putting loads of pressure on myself this week."

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