The Olympics started with a washout on day for 1 Andy Murray and after day 2 Andy Murray was nearly heading home.

Murray kicked of his Olympic life with a disappointingly pathetic loss to Lu Yen-Hsun in his opening singles match 7-6 (7-5) 6-4. Pathetic may be being harsh, but the Scot lost the first set from a seemingly winning position, missing out in numerous set points before finally handing the set to his much lowered ranked opponent on a double fault.

The second set went much the same and Murray threw away yet another lead in the second after fighting into 4-2 lead.

Don’t read any match report and believe that Lu Yen-Hsun played well above his 77th ranking – Andy Murray lost this match rather than Yen-Hsun winning it. At the same time don’t believe the reports about Murray not trying as hard because this was Olympics – He played badly yes – When Roger Federer loses in the third round of Cincinati, do the press accuse Federer of not trying. No that is a uniquely British Journalist trait of tearing down our sports stars on a personal level after losing.

And Andy Murray would prove his commitment to the Olympics and redeem himself in the doubles with a really hard fought win with his brother Jamie.

The brothers took to the court late on Monday evening after a few hours rest for Andy. The dup got of to the worst possible start and dropped the first set and Andy Murray’s much hyped Olympics was going down the toilet.

Somehow though Jamie and Andy managed to pull things together and they recovered to win the second set, it was perhaps a lot more to do with poor serving of 277th ranked Niemeyer who simply could not hold his serve. This carried on into the final set and Jamie Murray found himself serving for the set, but the older of the Murray Brothers could not finish off the match and it needed yet another break of Niemeyer serve to clinch the win. After the match Andy Murray was content with his doubles win, 

I came here to win an Olympic medal and realistically I was only ever going to win one in either singles or doubles, I’d like success but if I had to pick one it would be to win with my brother. To win an Olympic medal with my brother would be something special. I don’t want to make excuses – Lu just played better than me. I had my chances and I didn’t take them.

Jamie Murray admitted that the shock defeat in the singles had affected them in their match, 

It was a tough situation and Andy losing in the singles was a bit of a shock for us. He was a bit flat and some of that translated to me. That happens sometimes, Andy came here with high hopes of doing well in the singles and I guess he needed a bit of encouragement. It was a tough day for him but we got through and that’s the main thing.

Daniel Nestor is the worlds number 1 doubles player, so this was no easy match for the British pair and coming through with a win after dropping the first set and the massive disappointment of the singles result for Andy only a few hours earlier speaks volume for the fighting desire of the Murray Brothers. 

The draw does not get any easier for the British Brothers, they will play either French pair Clement / Llorda or Israelies Erlich / Ram – The score in that match is currently 6-4 5-4 in favour of the French pair. Erlich and Ram are the third ranked team in the doubles world and Clement and Llorda are the current Wimbledon champions.

Andy Murray will begin his Olympic Games in singles competition after his doubles match with brother Jamie was postponed due to rain. The Scot is due to take on Yen-Hsun Lu from Taipei (referred to as Chinese Taipei during the Olympic games) tomorrow at 5pm local time (9am UK time).

The Scots first round opponent Yen-Hsun Lu has never played Andy Murray mainly because Lu has played most of his career on the challenger circuit. Lu results this year in challenger events have been quite impressive having won two events and a win loss record of 28 wins and only 8 losses, this form has seen him rise into the top 80 and allowed entry to more of the ATP main events, recording a 6 wins, 10 losses record on main ATP events.

Murray on paper should have no trouble making it to the second round and the bookmakers unsurprisingly make overwhelming favorite. The best odds as usual can be found at Betfair and they are still offering a free £25 bet.

Andy Murray has been handed probably the most difficult draw possible for himself to win the Beijing Olympics title, If the Scot is to win Gold, he will have to beat all three of the worlds top 3 players providing they all successfully negotiate their earlier matches.

Of the top 4 players in the draw, Murray has the worst record against Rafael Nadal, having never won in 5 matches. Against Roger Federer he has won 2 of 3, against Novak Djokovic he has won the last two encounters after losing the first 4 and against 4th placed Nikolay Davydenko he has played 6 won 3. So Nadal was the one player that Murray wanted to avoid. Andy Murray’s record against the top 20

As these things usually goes Andy Murray was destined to be drawn not just in Nadal’s Half, but Nadal’s Quarter. This means that unless Nadal loses in one of first 3 round matches, Murray will need to overcome a 5-0 record to make the semi finals and gain a medal position.

To make things tougher Murray’s 3rd round oponent could be the highest possible ranked player of any of the top 8 seeds could meet and one of the players of the year so far 9th seed Stanislas Wawrinka.

To reach that far Murray will first need to negotiate Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei and then he will face the winner of Agustin Calleri and Ivan Ljubicic.

After the Quarters the draw gets easy for Murray, Novak Djokovic could be waiting and the Roger Federer in the final, meaning Murray would have to potentially beat the worlds top 3 players in the space of 4 days to win the Olympics – If he does that, then every British Journalist whoever wrote overly negative stories about Murray should just retire.

Roger Federer though will need to face the demons of his recent past, Ivo Karlovic and Gilles Simon are potential third round and qaurter final oponents, both players have beaten Federer just last month.