Andy Murray pleased with dominant Australian Open victory

“There’s no guarantees, but it’s definitely possible because I’ve been so close in the past”, Murray said of his prospects for finally winning. “He played pretty well against me and I didn’t play that well”.

Tennis officials reacted angrily to the report, refuting any suggestion of a cover-up and criticising its release just before the start of the season’s first Grand Slam.

Andy Murray is not concerned by his short off-season heading into the first major of the year.

Murray’s off-season was shortened after leading Britain to their first Davis Cup title in 79 years by beating Belgium in the final in November.

He secured his ticket to the Open for the first time with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 win over Bjorn Fratangelo in the final round of the qualifying competition on Saturday.

The teenager challenged the call – the second of three reviews he made in just four points – before flopping his hands into the air, as if nothing more could go wrong in the opening half-hour.

Murray has not played any warm up tournaments heading into Melbourne. I don’t deserve to win it more than any other tournament. “I don’t believe the players are allowed to be sponsored by betting companies but then the tournaments are”. And Tsonga did have the best slam of his life – he killed Rafa in the semis.

“I think that’s always the case in the off-season”, Murray said.

“But I’m going to, of course, do a little bit more analysis and research there and get myself ready”. He’s obviously improving all the time, so it will be a tough match’. I haven’t often played a bad match here. He has had a couple of surprising losses – going out in the first round against Jo Wilfried Tsonga in 2008 and to Fernando Verdasco the following year in the fourth round – but this is where he plays some of his best tennis. The phenomenal Serb begins the defence of his title against the exciting young Korean Hyeon Chung, and expectations are naturally vast after his three-slam season in 2015.

His wife Kim is due to give birth to their first child in the second week of February, and while there is a chance that if the baby arrives early Murray won’t compete. “I enjoyed every moment spent on the court”.

Murray also revealed that he had never been approached by anyone to fix a match during his career, unlike world No 1 Novak Djokovic who confirmed on Monday he was once indirectly offered £110,000 to throw a match in 2007. “I would do the same”, Djokovic said.

“When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I thought ‘I just hope I stay out there more than an hour, ‘” Konta said after the match.

A chastening first set, in which Zverev suffered a nose bleed in the second game, whizzed by in 35 minutes and it was not until the third that the world number 83 mounted any sort of resistance. But thereafter, fatherhood is likely to energise him.