Imperfect Murray Plays Down Indian Wells Prospects

As an antidote to three days in bed worrying about the prospect of glandular fever, Indian Wells, surrounded by the Santa Rosa Mountains and bathed in desert sunshine, provides the perfect recipe. Andy Murray described the playing conditions as "nearly perfect" on the eve of his return to action in the BNP Parisbas Open here in the first ATP Masters Series event of the year, even if his assessment of his own condition fell someway short of that.

"I'm not putting too much pressure on myself," Murray said. "I took a full 10 days off and obviously I lost a little bit of fitness. I'm not hitting the ball as well as I was before. Every week you want to win the tournament but there's no point in saying I'm feeling perfect. What I have learned, as you get older, is that you're not going to feel perfect every week and you just try to find a way to get through the first couple of matches."

Murray managed to do that in Rotterdam, just after returning from Australia, when the virus that has afflicted him began to kick in. A few days after he battled his way to a 10th ATP title, Murray started to get a sore throat and temperature and then suffered from a bad stomach and nose bleeds. For a while he was scared that it was glandular fever.

"My first blood tests came back and showed that it could be glandular fever," said Murray. "Then the second tests showed it wasn't but I needed the better part of three days in bed which was pretty boring."

Few things over the past year have impressed Murray's peers more than the Scot's dedicated and successful effort to build up his physique. Goaded by mindless early criticism over a tendency to get cramps – the normal protest of a growing body – Murray put himself through a rigorous training routine, culminating in some seriously heavy work in Miami just before Christmas with his fitness trainers Matt Little and Jez Green. Given that Murray has the most consistent record of any player in the world's top 10 over the past seven months, the results have turned him into a genuine contender for No1 in the world.

Needless to say, Murray has become a believer. "It's very important to have fitness trainers with you," he said. "If you've had a quick match and you're on your own, it's difficult to know exactly what to do afterwards because you are not a fitness trainer so it's made a huge difference to me."

Murray is expected to play his first singles match on Saturday against the experienced Spaniard Albert Montanes after receiving a first-round bye. Montanes, a 28-year-old who has taken 11 years on the tour to climb to his recently acquired ranking high of 35, made quick work of the Frenchman Florent Serra in the first round but winning on anything but clay is rare for the Barcelona resident. His one ATP title (in Amersfoort last year) and four finals have all come on clay.

In their only previous meeting in Qatar earlier this year on hardcourts similar to these at Indian Wells, Murray dismissed Montanes 6-2, 6-4 on his way to winning the title. A run of equal success here for the Scot seems highly unlikely but an early round victory will certainly make him feel a lot better.