Murray admits to feeling the Wimbledon pressure

Andy Murray insists the weight of expectation shrouding his Wimbledon performance remains despite a busy sporting summer.

Murray’s unconvincing preparations for SW19 continued yesterday when he was beaten 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-10 by Janko Tipsarevic at The Boodles tournament.

It was only his second match on grass following his first-round exit from the AEGON Championships last week.

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Wimbledon begins on Monday and the 25-year-old insists he will feel the pressure as acutely as ever, even if the likes of Euro 2012 and London 2012 are competing for the public’s attention.

“Every year it makes no difference to me whether a big football competition or the Olympics is on,” Murray said. “It’s the same because I always put pressure on myself to do well. Every time you play at the big events you want to prove you’re at the top and I’ll try to do that at Wimbledon.

“I reached the semi-finals last year and you want to do better every year you play at Wimbledon. It’s going to be tough, there are a lot of tough players around, big servers with big games that are very tough early on.”

Murray, who was installed as Wimbledon fourth seed yesterday, was subjected to a challenging afternoon by Tipsarevic.

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The Scot welcomed the work-out against the Serbian world No 8. “It’s always good to get matches in before a big event, especially against a top 10 player so it was a good test,” he said. “I was moving much better than I was a week ago at Queen’s, I wasn’t slipping around as much which will be important for Wimbledon.

“I’m hitting the ball very well and practice has been very good over the last few days.

“I’ve got another match here (today) and then I’ll spend two or three days at Wimbledon before the tournament starts.”

Defending champion Novak Djokovic and 2004 winner Maria Sharapova are the top seeds for this year’s Championships.

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The women’s seedings match the rankings exactly, with Victoria Azarenka in second, Agnieszka Radwanska third and defending champion Petra Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in the final last year, seeded fourth.

In the men’s draw, Djokovic is followed by Rafael Nadal. Six-time champion Roger Federer is seeded third, one place ahead of Murray, while last season’s semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is fifth.