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Page last updated at 14:10 GMT, Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Andy Murray relishing quick surface at Paris Masters

Andy Murray
Scotland's Murray lost to Argentina's David Nalbandian in Paris two years ago

Andy Murray says he is looking forward to playing on a quick surface when he takes on David Nalbandian in round two of the Paris Masters on Wednesday.

Murray, who received a first-round bye, comes into the tournament on the back of victory with brother Jamie in the Valencia Masters doubles tournament.

"It looks like it's playing very fast here. I'd rather it was quicker than too slow," said the third seed.

"Physically I feel quite good, and mentally pretty fresh".

Murray will be keen to make amends for last year's disappointing performance in the tournament, where he bowed out at the third round stage to Radek Stepanek, less than 15 hours after completing his second-round match.

606: DEBATE

At the moment, Murray's only coach is Alex Corretja, in a part-time role, and the Scot said he was happy to continue with this arrangement for the time being.

"I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who will be able to help, but it's about trying to find the best person," he said.

"I don't know exactly what type of person it is - it just has to be the right person. As I said a long time ago, I'll look at the end of the year and see what I want to do with that moving forward."

Nalbandian, who won the tournament in 2007, earned his place in the second round with a 6-3 6-1 win over Spain's Marcel Granollers, runner-up to David Ferrer in last week's Valencia tournament.

The clash between Murray and Nalbandian is scheduled to be the third match on the main court on Wednesday.

Roger Federer, who like Murray has a bye, will face Richard Gasquet after the Frenchman secured a 7-5 4-6 7-6 (9-7) first-round win over Nicolas Mahut.

The Swiss, top seed in the absence of the injured Rafael Nadal, goes into his first match full of confidence after beating Novak Djokovic in the Swiss Indoors final on Sunday.

Djokovic, the second seed, will play Juan Monaco, who defeated Sam Querrey 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 on Tuesday.

The first seed out of the tournament was Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, who was forced to retire hurt from the second set of his second-round match against Ernests Gulbis.

The results ended Youzhny's hopes of qualifying for the end-of-season ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month.

Spain's Fernando Verdasco came from a set down to beat Frenchman Arnaud Clement and keep alive his hopes of qualifying for the finals.

The sixth seed struggled in the early stages but won the last 10 games to clinch a 6-3 3-6 6-0 win.

Verdasco needs to reach the semi-finals to ensure a place in the season-ending showdown and will now face French 12th seed Gael Monfils, after he fought back from 5-1 down in the first set to beat Germany's Benjamin Becker 7-6 6-4 on Tuesday.

Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych, who beat Frenchman Florent Serra, seventh seed Spaniard Ferrer, American Andy Roddick and Austrian Jurgen Melzer are also fighting for the final three places in the eight-man finals.



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see also
Murray brothers seize first title
07 Nov 10 |  Tennis
Federer backs six-week ATP break
09 Nov 10 |  Tennis
Nadal confident of making London
08 Nov 10 |  Tennis
Monaco defeats Murray in Valencia
03 Nov 10 |  Tennis
Djokovic wins superb Paris final
15 Nov 09 |  Tennis
Stepanek knocks out tired Murray
12 Nov 09 |  Tennis
Nalbandian beats Murray in Paris
31 Oct 08 |  Tennis


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