Once again carrying the ever-swelling British hopes, top Scot Andy Murray will have to be on his “toes” from the word ‘Go’ at this year’s Wimbledon as he has been given a very challenging Draw. In fact, the Scot has been featured in the same half of the draw with Rafael Nadal, who has beaten Murray consecutively in the last two semi-finals at Wimbledon. We shouldn’t go that far, as Murray will face his first big challenge in his opening match here at SW19, as he will be up against veteran contender and former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko, who has a reputation of spoiling the parties of big guns – in big tournaments. But, Murray can take this as a huge opportunity as he will have to be on the top of his game and stay absolutely relentless from the very start because there would not be any freebies and any complacency could prove costly.

Bad news for British tennis fans – Murray has not been in the best of form in the new season. The Scot has an ordinary 26-9 win-loss record for the season so far and has won only one title in 2012. Gunning for his 23rd and 1 Major title at SW19, Murray has finished as a finalist – thrice in Grand Slam tournaments. The Scot has been going through a lean patch of late and he has to endure a difficult time in the run up to the Championships. The Scot lost all three matches, he played on grass and now that he has got a tricky draw – things are looking very challenging from the very beginning of Wimbledon.

Murray can take some heart from the fact that his opponent Nikolay Davydenko has been also going through a difficult phase at the final stage of his career. The Russian has a poor 12-12 win-loss record for the season so far and he is bidding for his 22nd title. Davydenko’s best showing at Wimbledon is fourth round appearance in 2007 and he will have to play out of his skin this time to get past that stage.

In head-to-head, Murray marginally leads with 5-4 against the Russian. Last time they met three years ago at Montreal Masters quarterfinal, where Murray topped Davydenko in straight sets. The Scot must be hoping to produce same sort of result this time too.