DUBAI // Invariably, Malek Jaziri keeps running into one of the Big Four every time he comes to Dubai.
In 2013, he found himself facing defending champion and then world No 2 Roger Federer in the first round. Last year, the Tunisian defeated Mikhail Youzhny only to land world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the second. And this year, he was drawn as reigning world No 1 Andy Murray’s first-round opponent.
To his credit, Jaziri, ranked a full 50 places below the Scot in the world, never looked daunted. He put up a brave fight, but the gulf in class was simply too great and it showed as Murray cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
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■ Day 2: Stan Wawrinka upset in first round by world No 77
■ Day 3 order of play: Murray and Federer both in action
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“I have never hit with him or played against him before,” Murray said. “It took a little bit of time to get used to his game. But I played better as the match went on.
“The only thing I didn’t do well was the first serve. I didn’t hit my first serve that well. I’m not sure exactly why. Maybe first match under the lights, haven’t practised in those conditions since I have been here. The rest went well. I felt like I moved good, and the body felt good.”
This was Murray’s first match since his fourth-round exit from the Australian Open in January. Following the surprise loss to Mischa Zverev the world No 1 showed no lingering effects of shingles, which had rendered him inactive for two weeks after his return home from Melbourne.
“Well, like I had a little bit of a rash basically like on my bum, round to kind of my stomach, and it wasn’t, like, terrible,” said Murray when asked about the shingles. “But then, normally if you have a little bit of a rash and you scratch it, it feels better. With that, it was really, really painful.
“I didn’t think much of it at the beginning, and then it was actually my wife’s mum – we were having dinner, and I was like, ‘This is really irritating’.
“She was, like, ‘Pull your pants down. Show me. It might be shingles’. I was, like, ‘OK’.
“Then the next day got a doctor, and she was right. Yeah, I think her son Scott had had it, so she had seen it before.”
The effects of shingles can linger even after the rash has disappeared, and the pain can be severe and debilitating. Murray, however, is confident he has fully recovered.
“The rash is completely gone now and I felt fine when I was training,” Murray said. “I mean, I don’t think I’d be able to do what I was doing out there this evening if … a lot of people said that afterwards, once the rash is gone, you can feel very tired for quite a few weeks, a number of weeks afterwards.
“I was maybe a little bit more tired than usual at the beginning, but I really feel fine now.”
Those words will come as music to Murray’s fans ears, for he is up against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez next and it could be a really tricky match.
Murray leads their head-to-head meetings 2-1, but Garcia-Lopez won their last clash – at Indian Wells in 2012 – 6-4, 6-2.
“I remember I lost to him once in Indian Wells when I was feeling great, from what I remember,” Murray said. “The practice week before, I was playing like some of the best tennis I had ever played, and then I went out there in the evening and really, really struggled.
“He killed me. I remember it being a pretty easy match for him. I will need to be ready for that one, and I hope I play a good one.”
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