After two years away from Wimbledon’s Centre Court Andy Murray made his long awaited return with a bang defeating French Veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in just over 2 hours.

Murray missed last year’s tournament with a serious wrist injury which kept out the whole of summer 2007, after today’s performance he certainly has not forgotten how to play or win on the Wimbledon grass.

The match was watched and commented for the BBC by Murray’s good friend and mentor Tim Henman and loud mouth former champion John McEnroe. Despite McEnroe trying to put Murray down at every chance he could get, Murray proved himself time after time. McEnroe criticised his fitness, despite Murray having a great 5 set record. The big bone of contention was Murray’s over use of the drop shot, it’s criticism I always struggle with. The reason that Murray appears to play the shot so often is because it is played so often by other players and Murray actually has a good success rate with that shot, It gets criticised because he plays it on vital points and doesn’t always win the point, but the same could be said for hitting a forehand long, should he stop playing forehands because he loses a vital point on it.

Santoro, the 35-year old Frenchman gave Murray a very good test today and after the match Murray said,

To win in straight sets against someone with as much experience is a good start, it was a really fun match. He hit some awesome shots, especially at the beginning, which got the atmosphere going. But once I settled down in the second set, I started to feel better about my game.

It had been Santoro’s dream to play on the famous centre court and left court smiling despite defeat.

Murray will now face Xavier Malise in the second round on Thursday.

Andy Murray will begin his 2008 Wimbledon campaign on centre court this afternoon against veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. The British number one missed last year’s tournament with a wrist injury and will be hoping to put an indifferent season so far behind him.

Andy Murray will be 3rd and last on centre court after Venus Williams kicks things of before Rafael Nadal starts his campaign against German Andreas Beck.

Santoro, nicknamed the “magician” on tour because he can conjure up some amazing shots that are not seen too often on tour will be looking to upset a very partisan British full house tomorrow on centre court

Murray and Santoro have met once before at the 2007 ATP Masters Series event in Paris which is played on hard courts, the score that day was 6-4 6-2.

For Snatoro this may be his last Wimbledon has the Frenchman approaches retirement and in his 19 year career he has never played on centre court. Santoro told Journalists

I made a request with the referee’s office to play on Centre Court. I have had a 19-year career, and I have played on every other court in the world apart from this one. It’s the only one left…I am excited to play singles on this court. I was pleased when I saw the draw as I thought that might mean more chance of being on Centre Court. This could be my last year on the tour….It’s a great challenge to play Andy in the first round. As you get towards the end of your career, you want to play these sort of matches.”

The first round draw Wimbledon 2008 has been made and Andy Murray has been drawn to meet Veteran French player Fabrice Santoro. The 35 year old Santoro still has a decent ranking of 53 and has been as high as 17 the world back in 2001.

The Scot has be drawn in the last quarter along with world number 2 Rafael Nadal and will meet the French open winner in the quarter finals if both make it through their first 4 matches. Murray has avoided any of the “big names” in the first four rounds though faces a very tricky potential second round match against  Xavier Malisse who reached the semi finals of Wimbledon back in 2002.

The first potential seed Murray could meet would be Tommy Robredo, though the Spaniard has a terrible record on grass and will likely not make the third round, Tommy Hass looks most likely to be Murray’s opponent in the third round should the Scot make it that far.

If Murray makes it as far as the second week and the fourth round, he will more than likely face another Frenchman, 8th seed Richard Gasquet, 28th seed Gilles Simon and former 2 time semi finalist Sebastien Grosjean are all potential fourth round opponents.

The third Quarter contains Andy Roddick, 9th seed James Blake and 4th seed Nikolay Davydenko, Roddick will be favorite to come through this quarter, though a potential second round match with Janko Tipsarevic is a realistic stumbling block for the big serving American. Look out for a great all American 4th round Match between James Blake and Andy Roddick.

The Top half of the Draw will likely see Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic win their respective quarters, though both players face potential tough games against the two big serving outside favorites. Djokivic will likely have to overcome Ivo Karlovic and Federer may potentially meet Mario Ancic, who has missed much of the last year due to illness.