The previous world primary can be forgiven for cursing his luck after drawing the ex-Wimbledon finalist, who made the final 4 right here final yr, within the first spherical however Murray clearly charges his probabilities of inflicting an upset.
“Obviously it’s a tough draw,” he mentioned. “But I also feel like I’m in a much better place than where I was during any of the slams last year coming into it.
“I feel well prepared, I feel ready to play a top player early in the event, whereas maybe last year at times my game didn’t feel that great and getting a difficult draw, a tough match early in the tournament, didn’t felt great.”
Murray’s troublesome hip held up effectively final yr and he didn’t have any main injury-related absences, however neither did he obtain the outcomes nor play the tennis he hoped for.
After battling cramp in the course of the second half of the season, he made the stark admission that he felt he had allowed his health to slip.
He addressed that in a pre-season coaching camp within the US with coach Ivan Lendl and, though he misplaced his solely aggressive warm-up match to Sebastian Korda in Adelaide final week, he carried out strongly on the exhibition event at Kooyong, beating main younger Australian Alex de Minaur.
“A good period of practice gave me some time to work on some things and improve some things,” mentioned the 35-year-old.
“I got a lot of work done away from the court as well in the gym so physically and in the matches I have played, whether that was the matches in Kooyong or in Adelaide or when we played up in Scotland [at the Battle of the Brits last month], my movement and stuff was significantly better than what it would have been at this stage last year.
“When I move well, I tend to play well, and that’s really important for me. That’s probably been the thing I’ve been happiest about. The conditions are playing pretty fast here so it’s even more important to be light on your feet.”
Murray and Berrettini are acquainted foes having met 4 occasions over the previous few years, with the Italian main 3-1. Their final conflict got here within the third spherical of the US Open final summer time, with Murray pissed off to fall to a four-set defeat.
“Obviously the match at the US Open was close, the match we played in Stuttgart was close and I won against him in Beijing,” mentioned the Scot.
“I know how I feel today in comparison to where I felt going into the US Open and I’m playing better, physically I’m in a better place. I feel well prepared for the event.”
Further reporting by PA.
