US Open Betting / Ralph Ellis / 28 August 2009 /

Andy Murray faces a tricky draw at the US Open but last year's finalist is in a typically serious mood in the build-up to his favourite tournament...

There are two tennis writers who trot the world making a tidy living off the back of Andy Murray. Whenever he's playing, wherever he's playing, they are there providing reports back to all the national media in England, and to magazines all over the world. When it's the big stuff, like next week's US Open, the papers, radio and TV will send their own men. The rest of the time it's down to the two of them to send back the information for everybody.

Now maybe it's because he's their meal ticket, but both of them assure me that Murray is a smashing chap. Great company, likes a laugh and a joke, always helpful and willing to give a bit of time for interviews, generally the nicest world number two you could hope for.

The rest of us? Well, we still haven't really taken Murray to heart. Why doesn't he smile more, couldn't he soften up that miserable sounding Scottish accent, why isn't he just a bit more like that nice Tim Henman?

Murray has taken on new PR people to try to soften that image. It's a commercial decision because unless he wins over the Great British public he'll never make the big money from advertising Persil or Daz when it's Wimbledon whites time. They could have a difficult job.

He's given a long interview this morning to the Daily Mirror's excellent Oliver Holt, insisting he's not bothered about whether Middle England takes to him or not.

"I don't go out of my way to ask the general public if they like me or not," he says. "That's not really number one in my priorities. I am never going to smile on the court. I don't see the other top guys smiling and joking when they are playing. It is a serious business, just like it is in other sports.

"Boxing is my favourite other sport and it is exactly the same for the fighters. If you watch Manny Pacquiao on his way to the ring he laughs and jokes, but as soon as he puts his foot through the ropes he is dead serious."

Murray is dead serious too about winning his first Grand Slam title. The draw won't make life easy for him with awkward Austrian Ernests Gulbis in the first round and a path of opponents that includes number six seed Juan Martin Del Potro and Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

The market for him to reach the final is in its early days and [2.14] is not much value at the minute, but the [4.8] for him to win the whole thing could be a different matter entirely. He's proved this year he has the fitness and the game to beat anybody, the US Open has always been his favourite tournament, and the fact he's now come to terms with not needing to be loved could just be a very good thing indeed.

His two favourite tennis writers will love him, win or lose. For the rest of us, ending the long wait since Fred Perry for a British Grand Slam winner might just be the moment he gets taken to heart.

Five things you might not know about Juan Martin Del Potro

1. Born in 1988 in Tandil, just outside Buenos Aires, his father Daniel played semi-professional rugby

2. He suffers from bad toes as a result of wearing poor footwear when he was young, and needs a 20 day break off season for them to recover

3. He won his first four career titles in successive tournaments, the only player ever to do that

4. There's a grudge between him and Andy Murray - Del Potro insulted Judy Murray during last year's Italian open

5. He's 21, single, wealthy, and been linked romantically with Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, but when asked if he was going out with her he said: "I wish". Make of that what you will!

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