Murray keen to make hard work pay off in New York

ANDY Murray will go into the US Open second round in New York believing the final grand slam of the year is his for the taking.

The world No 6 and British No1 faces Michael Llodra of France today having eased through the first round with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 defeat of Argentina's Sergio Roitman on Monday.

If Murray can get past the 38th-ranked Llodra he will face either Jurgen Melzer of Austria, who upset No 27 seed Feliciano Lopez, or Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic, both unseeded in round three with his first possible meeting with a fellow seed awaiting him in round four in the form of No10 Stanislas Wawrinka.

Fourth seed David Ferrer or possibly the dangerous No 19 Juan Martin del Potro stand between the Scot and a place in the semi-finals but Murray, a three-time tournament winner this year, believes he now has the attributes to land a grand slam.

"I think a lot of things go into having the ability to win a slam," Murray said.

"Talent gets you to a certain level and then the hard work starts to kick in, and if you're not putting in the hard work, you're not going to get the opportunities to win a grand slam.

"I think that's something I've learned since I first came on the tour, that your talent can get you to a certain level, and I've really stepped up my workload off the court and started travelling with a fitness trainer and I think that's the big difference in my game, and the reason why I have the potential to come through and win a slam."

And with Wimbledon champion and new world No 1 Rafael Nadal yet to assert his new-found dominance on hardcourts, Murray believes the game's top players are primed to unseat four-time US Open champion Roger Federer as the king of Flushing Meadows.

"I think even though Federer was still the favourite for Wimbledon, there were still guys that had a chance of doing some damage there and I think it's really exciting for tennis for the first time in quite a while," said Murray, who beat Federer for the third time in his career in Dubai earlier this year.

"There are obviously quite a few guys that have the potential to win it. I'd still say Federer is one of the favourites but in terms of being unbeatable, I think that's the mindset that isn't great if you're going on the court believing that you can't win against someone.

"It's not really going to happen and I think it's taken a few of the top guys to see Federer lose to lower-ranked players to start believing they can win against him.

"I'm sure it's been tougher for Roger this year than it has in the past, because he's lost to players that he's beaten, four, five, six times a row."

Murray's victory helped put to bed his disappointing first-round exit at the Olympic Games in Beijing,

"I'm feeling really confident just now regardless of what happened in Beijing," Murray said.

"I feel I'm hitting the ball well. I feel mentally strong and physically I'm not tired so I want to do well here and (Monday] was a good start."

Murray did admit to first-round jitters as he returned to competitive action for the first time since that Olympic defeat.

"I think before you get out on the court there is always maybe more nerves in the first round. Maybe by the second, third, fourth rounds, you get used to the court," he admitted.

"No-one wants to go out in the first round but actually, once you get onto the court and you play sort of four, five, six games, you get more comfortable and you relax a little bit.

"I was lucky I got off to a good start and calmed down a little bit after that."

Murray revealed he had adopted a new approach to big tournaments and his work ethic away from the court was also paying dividends.

"I play for myself and I work really hard off the court to try and get the rewards in these tournaments," he insisted. "In the past, I felt nervous coming into the bigger tournaments but now that I've started to work really hard off the court you go into the matches with sort of no excuses, no worries.

"You just go on the court and just to play tennis and that's one of the few things that I'm good at. It's worked out much better for me this year."