Andy Murray's bid to remould his game on clay starts with victory

Andy Murray had to work hard in his first clay-court match of the season before overcoming Spain's Feliciano Lopez 7-6, 6-4 in the Masters Series tournament here today.

The world No20, preparing for next month's French Open in Paris, took the first set on a tie-break. He then raced into a 5-2 lead in the second, only to be pegged back to 5-4 before sealing victory on his second match point.

Murray, who went into the match with a record of only four wins from 13 matches on clay, now plays Italy's Filippo Volandri. They last met in Hamburg last year, when the British No1 was leading 5-1 but then suffered a wrist injury that forced him to miss Paris and Wimbledon.

After coming through against Lopez, Murray said: "It's important to be realistic with the first match on the clay and not to go for too much. The game plan worked well. My concentration was good throughout the whole match."

Murray has added clay-court expert and former world No2 Alex Corretja to his back-up team. And, despite today's victory, the Spaniard said: "We need to take things slow with Andy on clay and we cannot expect miracles. We have to be humble and I am sure he will realise he can play on this surface.

"Andy is already a good player but there is big room for improvement. On clay, the important thing is to play lots of matches.