Murray set for first defence

Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 12 February 2007 / Leave a Comment

Andy Murray begins the defence of his SAP Open title in San Jose on Tuesday looking to preserve his status in the world's top 20.

The 19-year-old shocked the tennis world 12 months ago by beating Andy Roddick in the semi-finals and then disposing of Lleyton Hewitt in the final to claim his first title and, in doing so, pick up a large number of ranking points.

The Scot will now have to match that performance or he will lose a number of those ranking points, meaning an inevitable slip from his current world ranking of 13 - the highest in his fledgling career.

The Dunblane-born star is set to face 28-year-old American Kevin Kim on Tuesday and is a strong 1.1 favourite to down the world number 125, with Kim trading at 10 to shock the British number one.

Murray has been in superb form this season and lost in the fourth round of the Australian Open in five sets after an epic tussle with Spain's world number two Rafael Nadal.

The right-hander, who is trading at 4.6 to defend his title this week, is keen to break into the top ten but realises there is a lot of work to do to join the elite and then cement a place in the upper echelons of the sport.

"I'm still not there yet," he said recently. "I'm going to have to win some more big matches if I want to get there. And it takes a whole year of consistency to stay in the top 10.

"I've beaten a lot of guys in the top 10. Obviously I have a chance of getting there. But it's up to me to kind of keep focused, keep working hard, and then hopefully it will come."

US star James Blake is the current 3.65 favourite to win in San Jose with Andy Roddick, who is looking to bounce back from his semi-final mauling at the hands of Roger Federer Down Under, trading at 3.75 and Russian Marat Safin on offer at 8.