Murray: I'll play for Britain in Beijing

It is unclear how many of the world's top names will take part because the event is very close to the US Open, but Murray has no qualms about travelling to China.

"I'm definitely going to play the Olympics," the 20-year-old said. "It's something that not all athletes get the chance to do in their career. It's an honour to represent your country and I'm looking forward to it." Scroll down for more

The Games have been in the news for reasons other than sport this week with the torch relays through London and Paris targeted by protesters angry at China's human rights record.

There have been calls for athletes to boycott the event, but Murray said: "For me, the Olympics is more about the sport.

"I'm just concentrating and looking forward to playing in the tennis. I'm not a politician." Murray's opponents in Beijing could include world number one Roger Federer, who is known to covet an Olympic gold medal.

The Swiss star's phenomenal reputation has been affected by an indifferent start to the season - he has failed to reach a final so far this year.

Federer recently revealed he has been suffering from glandular fever, and Murray is not expecting the 12-time Grand Slam champion's current slump to continue - especially when the grass court season begins.

"He's lost more matches than he has done for the last four or five years early on so he's obviously not playing his best but he's still number one in the world and he's probably going to stay there this year," said the Scot. "He's not lost on grass for five years so I'm guessing he's still going to be in good form come Wimbledon time."

Murray will begin his preparations for the clay court season tomorrow before travelling to Spain for the Valencia Open next week.

He said: "I missed the whole of the clay court season last year because of my wrist injury so I'm hoping I can get a good run this year and not have any problems with injury."

Murray spent most of his teenage years at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona playing a lot on clay and he is confident he can be successful on the surface - after a bit of practice.

"I practised on it a lot when I was younger and had good results on," he said. "When I went over to practice in Barcelona I won some tournaments on the clay so it's a court I can play well on.

"But I've hardly played on clay for the last couple of years so I'm going to try and get some good practice in and try and get used to it again."

:: Andy Murray is sponsored by David Lloyd Leisure and was at Raynes Park visiting some of the 15,000 children that play on his Tennis AllStars programme. For more information about the programme visit www.davidlloyd.co.uk.