Andy Murray sounded a confident note going into the Australian Open despite a second successive loss.
Murray had lost in a tight three-set match against Grigor Dmitrov at last week’s ATP Tour event in Brisbane and again came off second best against Marin Cilic in an exhibition match at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The former world No1 will find out his fate on Thursday when the draw is made for the singles for the first grand slam of the year.
Despite going into it with just straight defeats in 2024, Murray said: “It’s good to play matches at this stage of the season. Obviously, last week I played a tough one first round in Brisbane against Dmitrov. And yeah it’s good to get another match today.
“I feel like I’ve put in a really good off-season. I think I played well last week in Brisbane and practice has been going really well. I played with a lot of top players and felt like I’ve been hitting the ball good.
“Marin played very well today in quite tricky conditions out there, quite blustery. He hit the ball extremely well today. But it’s been a good few days.”
Jack Draper continued his strong start to the year as he gained revenge on Miomir Kecmanovic in a tight three-setter to book his passage into the quarter-finals at the Adelaide International.
It was a repeat of the Davis Cup tie, which the Serbian had won at the end of last year, but Draper managed to edge out Kecmanovic in the repeat with a 5-7, 7-6, 7-6 victory.
