 Murray is the British number one |
British number one Andy Murray has been confirmed as a top 10 player for the first time in his career. The 19-year-old Scot moved up to 10th after Tommy Haas failed to reach the US Clay Court Championships semi-finals.
"To get into the top 10 is a big deal for most players when they do it for the first time," said Murray.
Murray has a first-round bye in this week's Monte Carlo Masters, but will play in the doubles event with his brother Jamie on Monday.
The British duo take on Poland's Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the final match on court two.
And Murray, who will meet Marc Gicquel in the second round after the Frenchman beat Germany's Florian Mayer, is looking forward to justifying his place among the tennis elite and make up for some disappointing displays on clay last season.
"Last year's clay-court season didn't go so well for me," said the eighth seed. "But I'm playing much better than I did last year, I'm much stronger physically as well.
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"I think my game is pretty well suited to clay so hopefully I can play well this year.
"I've been playing well in practice so hopefully I can transfer that on to the court."
Argentine Guillermo Canas, who has beaten world number one Roger Federer twice recently, has pulled out of the Monte Carlo event, suffering from leg pains. Americans James Blake and Andy Roddick have also withdrawn from the claycourt tournament.
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