Andy Murray insists he will be well prepared for the Australian Open, despite spending little time on court during the Hopman Cup.
British number one confident ahead of Grand Slam
Andy Murray insists he will be ready for the Australian Open, despite having spent limited time on court during the Hopman Cup.
The Scotsman chose to bypass his title defence in Doha this year to compete at the Perth round-robin tournament in order to guarantee himself three singles matches.
However, after breezing through his opening two matches with triumphs over Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev and world number 27 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, Murray has played for less than two hours in singles competition.
The 22-year-old will play just one more game in Perth, unless Great Britain reach the final, and is not scheduled to play again until the Australian Open gets underway in Melbourne on January 18.
Match-sharp
Murray, though, is adamant the extra workload of playing mixed doubles at the Hopman Cup will see him match-sharp for the first Grand Slam of the year.
"It's just spending time on court that you want," said Murray, after he secured a 2-1 win over Germany with playing partner Laura Robson.
"Obviously if the games go longer that's a good thing, but because we go straight out to play the mixed then if you look at it today I probably had two and half hours on the court in total and I also warmed up for half an hour as well.
"It is enough. I don't want to play loads."
Murray also admitted he had found it difficult to adapt to the pace of the balls and courts in Australia.
Playing in the Hopman Cup has allowed him to get used to the Wilson balls and hardcourt surface that players will encounter at Melbourne Park.
"I started serving really well with the new balls and then as the first set progressed I started missing a lot of first serves into the net," he added.
"I haven't played a match for five or six weeks so it's probably just that. But the Wilson balls are quick and then they do slow down a lot so it does take a bit to get used to.
"It's just little adjustments."
Meanwhile, teenage prodigy Robson, who produced a battling performance before eventually losing to world number 22 Sabine Lisicki, was pleased to improve on her opening defeat to Yaroslava Shvedova.
"I made a few more volleys than on Monday so it was more impressive," said the 15-year-old.
"I can still improve on everything, but the match was a lot better than Monday. I had chances in the first set, but she just played better in the end."
