ANDY MURRAY will play Lu Yen-Hsun of Taipei in the first round of the Olympics, but faces a tough test if he is to go on and win a medal.
The British No.1 is likely to face Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals, with Novak Djokovic a potential semi-final opponent.
Top seed Roger Federer has a tricky opener against Dmitry Tursunov.
Andy and Jamie Murray will play Canada's Daniel Ne
stor and Frederick Niemeyer in the doubles first round.
It might be 72 years since Fred Perry became the last British man to win Wimbledon but you'll need to go back a full century to find the last home player to take tennis gold at the Olympics.
Wentworth Gore led a British clean sweep at the 1908 Games in London – and Andy Murray couldn't be in better shape to end the losing streak.
The newly-installed world No.6 – buzzing from his first ever Masters Series win in Cincinnati – touched down in hot and humid Beijing full of confidence.
Despite growing up in the drizzle of Dunblane, the Scot has established himself as a top player in conditions that would normally only tempt mad dogs and Englishmen to play tennis.
"This could be the biggest month of my career so far," admitted Murray. "Cincinnati was my biggest win yet – so there couldn't be a better time to be playing the Olympics and US Open. In an ideal world I'd have got here a bit sooner and taken my time to relax and soak up the atmosphere.
"I know it's going to be hot but the humidity last week was unbelievable and all the work I've done in training, especially in the gym, means I'm not so worried about that as a factor."
With one notable exception, the roll call of Olympic tennis gold medallists, since the sport's reintroduction to the Olympics in 1988, does not make for impressive reading.
Anyone remember Miloslav Mecir's triumph in Seoul or Marc Rosset's gold medal in Barcelona?
Granted Andre Agassi was a popular home winner in Atlanta 12 years ago but since then Yevgeny Kafelinkov and Nicolas Massu – hardly household names – have won in Sydney and Athens.
This year's Olympics will be well attended but many of the big-money stars still give the impression it's an unwelcome distraction from the money-spinning final Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows later this month.
"Quite a few players are staying in hotels but what's the point of coming to the Olympics if you don't stay in the village," added Murray.
"It's great being around all these great athletes from different sports, its what makes this event so special."
The full article contains 453 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
