Winning a first-round match is old hat to Andy Murray. And it's something he always does wearing old socks.
The fourth-seeded Murray beat Tatsuma Ito of Japan 6-1, 7-5, 6-0 Tuesday in the first round of the French Open, and after the match he revealed some of his secrets for success.
"I only wear old socks," Murray said. "I don't like new ones. My feet slip in the shoe a lot.
"I'll wear new socks, like, just to walk around in, and the old ones to play matches in."
Murray, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros last year, is bidding to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a Grand Slam tournament. He has already lost in three major finals.
To help him get there, Murray hired Ivan Lendl as coach at the start of this season. Lendl lost his first four Grand Slam finals before winning the French Open in 1984.
Murray has already won 22 titles in his career, defeating players like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer along the way. But in Grand Slam matches, Murray is 2-6 against Nadal, 0-2 against Djokovic, and 0-2 against Federer.
Murray hopes the work with Lendl will pay off.
"We worked on many, many things. There's not been one radical change," Murray said. "If you pick sort of 10 small things to work on and change, that can maybe turn into a big difference."
On Tuesday, Murray won nine straight games to take the last two sets against Ito, who was making his French Open debut.
"The first and third sets were very comfortable," said Murray, who will next face Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. "The second set could have been, but I obviously played a bad game."
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