Murray working with Agassi’s former coach

Andy Murray had positive news about his elbow problem heading into the Madrid Open after revealing he has been able to practise for the last week.Murray pulled out of last month’s Barcelona Open after failing to recover from the injury he sustained in Monte Carlo, where the British No 1 reached the semi-finals before losing in three sets to Rafael Nadal.

However, Murray looks to have returned to fitness in time for this week’s Masters 1000 event in Madrid, where he is the fourth seed behind defending champion Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

When asked about his elbow, Murray said yesterday: “It’s good, I’ve been practising since last Sunday so have been hitting (for) a week now.

“I went over to Barcelona and tried to practise on the Tuesday after Monte Carlo and it was a bit sore still so I took five or six days off. I was able to do all sorts of training, I just couldn’t hit, and then I built it up every day and I’ve been practising since Sunday.”

Murray, who looked to have put a disappointing run of form behind him with his performance in Monaco, also revealed that his preparation for the Madrid Open has included work with Australian Darren Cahill, the former coach of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt.

The world No 4 has been without a full-time coach since splitting with Miles Maclagan in July of last year. Murray also parted company with part-time consultant Alex Corretja in March.

“Darren Cahill was on the court with me (on Saturday) and it was the first day I’d done anything with him,” said Murray, who had failed to win a single set in three tournaments between reaching the Australian Open final and the last four in Monte Carlo.

The 23-year-old has a first-round bye in Madrid, a tournament he won in 2008 when it was played on hardcourt rather than the current clay surface, and he will meet either Frenchman Gilles Simon or experienced Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the second round.

Murray has won five of his six meetings with Simon – including in the 2008 Madrid final and also in Monte Carlo last month – while against Ljubicic, the Scot has a 3-3 record.

“I’ve played both of them quite a few times,” said Murray.

“They are pretty different players; Simon’s more solid, very quick and doesn’t make many mistakes, and Ljubicic has a big serve, probably makes more mistakes but probably has a bigger weight of shot, so they’re both very different.”