Fired-up Murray's facing Tsonga test

Murray, seeded nine in the opening Grand Slam championship of the year, faces rising French star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in one of the best matches to come out of the first-round draw.

The British No1 has played 22-year-old Tsonga only once before, defeating him 6-3, 6-3 when they met in last year's Davis Cup.

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But Tsonga, ranked 38 in the world, is a dangerous opponent who forced Henman into retirement when he beat him at the US Open last August.

Murray, who kicked off 2008 by winning the Qatar Open, certainly expects a tough battle.

"He's obviously playing really well right now," the Scot said today after beating Australian teenager Brydan Klein 6-2, 7-6 to earn his second win at the Kooyong Classic warm-up event.

"In the next month or so Tsonga's ranking will probably get him seeded at slams, so it's a tough match.

"He has a good serve, is a good athlete, and hits the ball pretty hard from the baseline. It's going to be a hard match for me." Providing he can get past Tsonga, Murray looks a good bet to get to the quarter-finals, where another young Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, could be waiting.

But Murray isn't taking anything for granted.

"Hopefully, I' ll come through the first one and then start to look at the draw a little bit," he said. "But when you've got a first-round match like that, you are not going to look past someone as tough as him.

"He beat [Lleyton] Hewitt pretty convincingly in Adelaide and made the semis there, so he has obviously started the year well."

Murray said the eight-man exhibition event at Ko oyon g wa s ideal preparation for the Australian Open, giving him the chance to test out different elements of his game.

He said: "Today, I came into the net much more than I probably would have done normally. I tried to use some short slices to get in and hit quite a lot of volleys, which was good."

Murray is scheduled to meet Argentinian Juan Ignacio Chela in the third round.

Also in his half of the draw are in-form American Andy Roddick and Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal, who are set to clash in the quarter-finals.

Top seed Roger Federer, who is aiming for a third consecutive Australian Open crown, will take on Argentina's Diego Hartfield in the first round before a possible quarter-final clash against last year's runner-up Fernando Gonzalez.

Federer has been fighting a stomach virus since his arrival in Australia last week and has barely picked up a racket after withdrawing from the Kooyong Classic.

One of the highlights of the first round will be the clash between two former finalists, Sweden's Thomas Johansson and 15th seed Marcos Baghdatis.

The winner of that match is likely to take on Russian Marat Safin, Australian Open champion in 2005 and a winner against Murray earlier this week.