Murray burns bright to see off Germany

Too much sun can't stop the world No 4 from teeing up another Hopman Cup win

(Getty Images)

Given the Siberian conditions back home Andy Murray will not be expecting much sympathy, but the world No 4 revealed in Perth yesterday that he was suffering from sunburn. "My back is on fire," Murray said after beating Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-1 in the Hopman Cup. "I practised yesterday with my shirt off and I got so, so burnt."

Failing to appreciate the strength of the Australian sun is about the only thing Murray has got wrong as Britain enjoyed another successful day at the mixed team event. Laura Robson suffered her second successive singles defeat, going down 7-6, 6-3 to Sabine Lisicki in a tight encounter, but once again the 15-year-old teamed up with Murray to win the mixed doubles. The Britons beat Kohlschreiber and Lisicki 6-3, 6-2 to complete a 2-1 victory.

Murray and Robson face Igor Andreev and Elena Dementieva tomorrow in their final group match to decide who will go through to Saturday's final. The Russians suffered a surprise defeat yesterday to Kazakhstan, Andrei Golubev beating Andreev and then teaming up with Yaroslava Shvedova to win the mixed doubles.

Considering the difference in age and experience, Robson's performance against Lisicki was highly encouraging. The 20-year-old German, who as the world No 22 is ranked 381 places higher than the 2008 junior Wimbledon champion, is one of the rising talents in the women's game. Robson served for the first set at 5-4, led by the same margin in the tie-break before losing it 7-5 and broke serve once in the second set.

"I made a few more volleys," Robson said afterwards. "I can still improve on everything, but the match was a lot better than Monday's. I had chances in the first set, but she just played better in the end."

Kohlschreiber, the world No 27, was usually on the back foot against Murray, who attacked from the start. The Scot raced into a 4-1 lead with some aggressive hitting, suffered a brief dip as Kohlschreiber levelled at 4-4, but broke again to take the first set. The second was one-way traffic, with Murray taking it in just 17 minutes. Murray and Robson were quickly off the blocks in the doubles, winning the first five games in only 14 minutes before securing a comfortable victory.

Although he has been on court for a total of just two hours in his singles matches, Murray said that playing mixed doubles ensured he had sufficient preparation for the Australian Open, which begins in 11 days. "It's just spending time on court that you want," Murray said. "If the games go longer that's a good thing, but because we go straight out to play the mixed I probably had two and a half hours on the court in total. I also warmed up for half an hour as well. It's enough. I don't want to play loads."

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are preparing for the year's first Grand Slam tournament by playing in Doha at the Qatar Open, which Murray has won for the last two years. The world's two leading men moved smoothly into the quarter-finals, Federer beating Russia's Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and two minutes and Nadal needing just 10 minutes more to brush aside Italy's Potito Starace 6-2, 6-2.

Justine Henin, playing her first tournament for 20 months after coming out of retirement, continued to make progress at the Brisbane International, beating Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva 6-4, 6-3 to book her place in the quarter-finals, where she will face the Hungarian Melinda Czink.