Tennis: Sore ankle fails to halt Murray

ANDY MURRAY brushed aside a spirited challenge from Igor Kunitsyn to book his place in the second round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

The third seed, playing his first match since the Australian Open final, beat the Russian qualifier, ranked a lowly 90th in the world, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour 41 minutes to set up set up a clash with either Andreas Seppi or Janko Tipsarevic.

Afterwards, Murray said: "My ankle was sore at the start of the match and I was really out of breath early on.

"I have not practised that much, or trained that much and there were a lot of long rallies."

While not at his best, Murray was rarely tested.