Murray spoke ahead of proceedings starting and he believes that the no fans aspect lends itself to a lot of upsets; but that personally he is looking forward to it and his hip feels good ahead of his tie against Tiafoe.

“I do feel there will be a lot of upsets,” said Murray. “Usually there's a little bit more time to get used to the conditions… It's just going to be different playing in front of no fans. I kind of felt that a little bit yesterday when I was walking through the grounds. It's nice walking through to your practice courts, not getting stopped or anything, but then the atmosphere is just not the same without the people.”

“I'm looking forward to it, just to be back competing again. I've really enjoyed the past few days just practising with top players, which I've kind of done it a little bit back home but not that much… I've been practising. I practised with [Dominic] Thiem, [Andrey] Rublev and [Karen] Khachanov… But I'm feeling quite good on the court physically in terms of my hip.

“For me to know exactly how my body feels after playing a competitive match will be important for me. If I did well and got a few matches, that would suggest my body is probably feeling quite good.

If I didn't do well, my body wasn't great, it would suggest I probably need to do some work in the sort of eight, nine days before the [US Open] starts.

I think it would just give me more kind of information. I'll be able to learn a little bit more about where I'm at, maybe things I need to work on, things I need to practise and stuff.”

Proshots