Valencia win shortens Murray's Australian Open odds

Andy Murray could be ready to break his Grand Slam duck after he won the Valencia Open over the weekend.

The Scot beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, and will now focus on preparing for the 2010 Australian Open.

Following the win in Valencia, Murray's online tennis betting odds for the January tournament stood on 5.00 to make him joint second-favourite with Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro.

Murray's performance against Youzhny was particularly impressive given he was on the comeback trail from a wrist injury which had kept him out of action for six weeks.

Last week he said the injury lay-off could be a plus point as he builds to the first big tennis tournament of 2010.

Quoted by the Guardian, he said: "In some ways (the break) can be a good thing because you can work on something that you might not necessarily have worked on as much.

"I had to do things to keep my mind fresh because it was six, seven weeks in London, seeing the physios and doctors and doing the same things every day, so we worked on different things on the practice court, which was nice."