Rumours of a serious injury have got Andy Murray’s back up

 
Chris Jones28 May 2012

Andy Murray’s dodgy back is a subject that will not go away as he prepares to face Japan’s Tatsuma Ito in the first round of the French Open here tomorrow.

The latest rumour is that Murray has received cortisone injections to help mask the pain but those close to the world No4 insist they are in the dark about that one.

Having reached the semi-finals here in Paris last year, where he was beaten by eventual champion Rafael Nadal, Murray has ranking points to defend which can only be achieved by either matching or doing better this time. Given that world No6 David Ferrer is a potential fourth-round opponent and Nadal could loom in the last four, Murray needs to be in peak condition on clay, a surface that exposes any weakness in the body or mind.

The Briton is getting irritated by the attention on a problem that forced him to sit out the recent Madrid tournament. He said: “Everyone has niggles, of course you do. People are making a massive deal about it — I’m not.

“I’ve had a problem with my back, Rafa [Nadal] has had problems with his knees, Novak [Djokovic] had a problem with his back last year. But you miss a tournament, you have one bad tournament afterwards, then they say, ‘oh, he’s got back problems’, or suddenly it’s threatening my career. But it’s not. It’s just a problem I’ve got to deal with and, at the end of the year, I’ll get time to rest and recover and let it get better.

“I won’t be the only one who has niggles but, hopefully, the worst of it is gone. The next few months are very important with big tournaments coming up.”

Tomorrow’s match will be Ito’s first in the main draw at Roland Garros and the world No68 admits he would become a tennis “hero” if he managed to defeat Murray.

Ito said: “Andy is great player and I will have to be very aggressive. His serve is difficult to break and it is exciting to play him. If I won I would become very famous in Japan.”

Murray hopes to avoid the same fate suffered by former US Open champion Andy Roddick, who was knocked out of the tournament by France’s Nicholas Mahut 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 yesterday.

The 26th seed from America said: “I moved horrendously out there. My first step is so bad on this stuff. I’m always shuffling or hopping or something. You can’t fake it out there. These are the best tournaments in the world.”

British No1 Elena Baltacha admits she has a lot of work to do to qualify for the Great Britain Olympic tennis team after losing 6-4, 6-0 against Sam Stosur, a former French Open finalist.

“I want to play at the Games — they are amazing and I want to be part of them,” said Baltacha, who will drop down to the 80s in the rankings. “But at the same time, I have given it my best and I knew I had points to defend.”

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