Murray wary of Berrer’s threat in Thai opener

The tournament started earlier this week, but it will be declared officially open today by prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, followed immediately by Murray’s opener against Berrer.

The Scot was last in action in the middle of September when he helped Great Britain to a Davis Cup win over Hungary at Braehead Arena. Prior to that, Murray suffered a semi-final defeat to Rafa Nadal at the US Open.

Berrer is ranked No 88 in the world and Murray said: “I beat him at the French Open this year, but he plays better on a fast surface. He plays left-handed which makes it more difficult. But I will try to do my best.”

In yesterday’s action, third-seeded Gilles Simon was pushed hard before finally beating Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4 in the second round.

The 2009 champion struggled against Lu’s net play and, after losing the first set on a tiebreaker, he found himself a break down at 4-2 in the second set.

Simon fought back to level at 4-4 before a Lu double fault handed him a crucial break and the Frenchman served out to level the match.

A backhand winner gave Simon the first break of the deciding set in the ninth game and the No 12-ranked Frenchman sealed the victory after two hours, 24 minutes.

“He was playing amazing tennis,” Simon said of Lu. “He did not miss, hit hard, served well and volleyed really nice. I had to bring the maximum in every point to win.”

Simon will meet Matthias Bachinger in the quarter-finals tomorrow. The unseeded German beat Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

On the women’s circuit, meanwhile, Kaia Kanepi eliminated top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 yesterday to advance to the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open.

The 43rd-ranked Kanepi rallied from three games down in the third set and won the match when she broke the defending champion with a forehand down the line. After a sluggish start, Wozniacki dominated the second set, but was unable to keep the momentum in the third when she was broken three times by the Estonian player.

“I played some good tennis in the second set and the first half of the third, but then I couldn’t get my serve in,” Wozniacki said.

“Kaia played a good match today. I’ll try to do better next time.” Kanepi will face ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the Thursday’s quarter-finals. Radwanska beat eighth-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 2-6, 6-4, 6-0.

Also, second-seeded Maria Sharapova earned a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) win over Julia Goerges.