• Wimbledon

Murray 'looking forward to' huge British pressure

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Andy Murray will not use the weight of public expectation as an excuse if he falls short in his bid to win a first grand slam title at Wimbledon, which begins on Monday.

Murray, a two-time semi-finalist at the competition, kicks off his challenge with a Centre Court clash against Daniel Gimeno-Traver, the Spanish world No. 56.

The pressure on Murray to succeed was ramped up when he clinched the title at Queen's last week, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in style. And as the only British player with a realistic hope of lifting the trophy at the All England Club, Murray knows he must make the most of the crowd's support.

"Just because it's Wimbledon, it's not extra pressure just because of the home support," Murray told Sky Sports News. "In every other sport people talk about how important a home match is, how much easier it is to play at home.

"But in tennis for some reason people think it's different, with extra pressure. But for me it helps - it helped Tim Henman a lot in his career, and it's definitely helped me here, too. I look forward to the pressure because I want to win the tournament. I put pressure on myself."

Meanwhile, Murray insists that Gimeno-Traver will offer no surprises to him. "I know him quite well because we grew up playing a lot of the same junior tournaments," he said. "When I went over to Spain, I saw him quite a lot.

"He's a solid, good, all-round player. He serves pretty well, has a solid forehand. He's similar to a lot of the Spanish guys, so I'll have to work hard."

Men's rankings: 1. Rafael Nadal, 2. Novak Djokovic, 3. Roger Federer, 4. Andy Murray, 5. Robin Soderling, 6. David Ferrer, 7. Tomas Berdych, 8. Gael Monfils, 9. Mardy Fish, 10. Andy Roddick, 11. Jurgen Melzer, 12. Viktor Troicki, 13. Richard Gasquet, 14. Stanislas Wawrinka, 15. Nicolas Almagro, 16. Gilles Simon, 17. Mikhail Youzhny, 18. Florian Mayer, 19. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 20. Juan Ignacio Chela.

Women's rankings: 1. Caroline Wozniacki, 2. Kim Clijsters, 3. Vera Zvonareva, 4. Li Na, 5. Victoria Azarenka, 6. Maria Sharapova, 7. Francesca Schiavone, 8. Petra Kvitova, 9. Marion Bartoli, 10. Sam Stosur, 11. Agnieszka Radwanska, 12. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 13. Andrea Petkovic, 14. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 15. Jelena Jankovic, 16. Julia Goerges, 17. Kaia Kanepi, 18. Ana Ivanovic, 19. Yanina Wickmayer, 20. Shuai Peng.

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