Murray says Beijing lessons will help London hopes

Andy Murray feels the frustration of his Beijing Olympics defeat by China's Yen-Hsun Lu (Getty Images)

Andy Murray has seen his Grand-Slam hopes dashed often enough on Wimbledon's grass courts but this year's London Olympic tournament at the home of tennis will at least help him soothe a four-year itch.

After being selected yesterday as the first tennis player in Team GB – and the 248th athlete in a 550-strong British squad – Murray said he had learned from his unhappy experience at the 2008 Beijing Games. The Scot, who was then ranked No 6 in the world, lost his first-round Olympic match to Taiwan's lowly-ranked Lu Yen-hsun, in straight sets.

"Having had the experience of last time I think I will have learned from that and do things a little bit differently this time," the 25-year-old said yesterday at Wimbledon, where he will step out again next week in search of his first Grand Slam title.

"I was very disappointed when I finished so early in Beijing but it also gave me a kick up the bum," added the three-times Wimbledon semi-finalist. "I ended up doing well at the US Open afterwards [he lost the final to Switzerland's Roger Federer, in straight sets] because I was very disappointed with myself and really went for it."

Murray will hope for a similar effect when he begins this year's Wimbledon campaign on the back of three successive defeats – although two of those have been in exhibition matches.

Yesterday's 6-4, 6-4 defeat by Novak Djokovic at the Boodles event at Stoke Park came on the back of losses against another Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic, at the same event on Wednesday and Nicolas Mahut of France in the Aegon Championship at Queen's Club last week.