Australian Open: Davis Cup aids Andy Murray as he prepares for Sam Groth's heavy fire

Uncharted territory: Murray has never met Groth
(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Paul Newman20 January 2016

Andy Murray hopes that the experience of facing Sam Groth’s huge serve in the Davis Cup last year will be to his advantage when he take on the 28-year-old Australian here tomorrow in the second round of the Australian Open.

Murray has never met Groth in singles but faced the world No67 in the doubles in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup in Glasgow four months ago. The victory by Murray and his brother Jamie over Groth and Lleyton Hewitt was crucial as Britain fought their way through to the final against Belgium.

“It is good, especially with someone with his game, to feel his serve and where he likes to serve, how it comes through,” Murray said. “Obviously the courts are a bit different here to Glasgow, but it’s good to see his service motion as well. It helps. That was a great match, that one, a big, big match. It could have made the difference. He is a big guy with a big, big game. Obviously he spends a lot of time up at the net, so he knows where to position himself and makes it tough for you, so it will be a tough match. If he serves well he’s not easy to break.”

Groth holds the world record for the fastest serve, having hit the 263 kilometres per hour mark (163.4 mph) at the Busan Open four years ago. Standing at 6ft 4in and weighing 15st 8lb, he has the big shots to match his impressive frame.

Our favourite images from the Australian Open Tennis 2016

1/33

Murray, however, likes his opponents to attack and will not be concerned if Groth comes to the net and plays serve-and-volley. “I normally enjoy playing against the guys that come forward, so hopefully I can return well and pass well,” Murray said.

“Obviously he will have the crowd behind him as well. He’s a competitive guy, too. He fights extremely hard and has a great attitude. He will make it tough for me because he has a different game style to a lot of the players now.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in