• Wimbledon, Day One

Murray to reach boiling point in pursuit of glory

ESPN staff
June 21, 2011
Andy Murray got the blood flowing at Wimbledon © Getty Images
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Andy Murray believes he may need to "fire himself up" in order to get the best out of his game at Wimbledon, and he admits he would prefer to play the rest of his matches with the roof open.

Murray came through a tricky first-round test on Monday, losing the first set to Daniel Gimeno-Traver before eventually triumphing 4-6 6-3 6-0 6-0. The British No. 1 was distinctly second-best in the opening set, but his first break of serve changed the entire momentum of the match.

Prior to that moment, Gimeno-Traver was firing down frequent forehand winners, while Murray seemed deflated in front of his home crowd. It seems, quite to the contrary of the views of John McEnroe, that Murray will need to reach boiling point in each match if he is to advance to the latter stages.

"It was tough because I was having quite a lot of chances and I wasn't able to convert any of them for the first set and a half," Murray said.

"And then I did get myself fired up when I managed to get the break, and after that I didn't lose a game. So I did a good job of that and it's something that I need to keep on improving on because the matches are going to get tougher. I'm going to go through a lot of those situations during the tournament."

Monday's clash was not the first time Murray has played under the closed roof, famously beating Stanislas Wawrinka in a classic two years ago. The Brit insists he does not hate Wimbledon's expensive refurbishment, but he would prefer to steer clear of it.

"Last time I made a comment on it and for some reason it came out as I hated it - I never said that," Murray commented.

"The roof changes the conditions. If anything it's almost too perfect. There's no wind, no sun, no elements to contend with. It's different grass-court tennis. And, like you saw in the first set, he was able to hit a lot of huge forehands, which it's normally harder to do when it's a little bit breezy outside or whatever.

"It definitely slows the court down a little bit. But it was a good match. I thought it was a good standard of match and a good atmosphere in there as well."

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