Murray unfazed by tough draw as he aims to build on Monaco form

The elbow injury that forced him to withdraw from his last tournament has healed and Andy Murray is looking forward to the next stage of his recovery from his post-Australian Open slump. The world No 4 has been back on the practice court since last Sunday and is playing in this week's Madrid Masters.

With the French Open starting in less than three weeks' time, Murray needs to build on the promising return he made at last month's Monte Carlo Masters. Not only does the 23-year-old Scot face a tough opening match in the Spanish capital against either Ivan Ljubicic or Gilles Simon, but he also knows that many of the game's big names are running into ominous form.

Rafael Nadal, who has not lost on clay for nearly two years, has already won two tournaments this season on his favourite surface, while Novak Djokovic, who has his eyes on the Spaniard's world No 1 ranking, extended his remarkable unbeaten start to the year by winning his fifth tournament in succession at the Serbian Open yesterday. Juan Martin del Potro and Nikolay Davydenko, formerly No 4 and No 3 in the world respectively, also maintained their returns to form following injury by winning the tournaments in Estoril and Munich.

Murray has started working with the Australian coach Darren Cahill, who is helping him as part of the Adidas player development programme. Having parted company with both Miles Maclagan and Alex Corretja in the last nine months, Murray has turned to Cahill for temporary help while he seeks a permanent replacement.

"I feel great," the Scot said yesterday. "I've been practising really well. I feel good again. I've got the right mentality just now. I've been playing very well, so hopefully I can keep that up here. I've got a tough first match, but definitely one I can win if I play well."

Madrid, which is followed by another Masters Series tournament in Rome next week, is reckoned to give less of an advantage to the clay-court specialists because it is played at altitude, meaning the balls fly faster through the air.

Murray, who is playing doubles this week with his brother, Jamie, has a first-round bye. He is seeded to meet Serbia's Viktor Troicki in the third round, Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals and Djokovic in the semi-finals.

Nadal and Roger Federer are seeded to meet in the semi-finals in the other half of the draw. Nadal's section looks particularly tricky. The Spaniard is likely to play Marcos Baghdatis in his opening match and may also have to beat Del Potro and Jürgen Melzer if he is to reach the last four.

Djokovic's 7-6, 6-2 victory over Feliciano Lopez in his home city of Belgrade was his 27th in succession this year following his triumphs in Melbourne, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. The world No 2, who has not lost a match since last November's Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, is enjoying the best start to a season on the men's tour since Ivan Lendl kicked off 1986 with 29 victories in a row. John McEnroe began the 1984 season with 42 wins, which is the best start in the Open era.

Having missed Monte Carlo because of a knee injury, Djokovic should be well refreshed for the challenges ahead. He needed only six sets to claim the 23rd title of his career after three straight-sets victories and a semi-final walk-over against his injured fellow countryman, Janko Tipsarevic.

The concurrent women's tournament in Madrid began on Saturday and has already claimed some big-name victims.

Svetlana Kuznetsova was knocked out by Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, Ana Ivanovic was beaten by the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Aravane Rezai, the title holder, lost to Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson.