That was a great first set from Ryan ... lots of variety; he'll be upping that ranking soon.
Murray just took over for the following three sets. His on-court self beratement (prob not a real word) seemed more pulled back then usual. Trying to look good for Mr Lendl? Whatever the reason ... Andy looked strong and calm as the match wore on.

smr - thanks for that. never saw the match. Reassuring.
I did hear his interview though and i have to say I'm not over-excited about his philosophy of not wanting to peak too early when we're talking about 3+ hours in the scorching melbourne heat! In light of the conditions, I much prefer the nole approach of serving double bagels and getting off court quick time.

They had very different opponents. :)

Nole was actually broken in his first service game, by the way.

yep, folks seem to say this guy harrison is pretty handy. Haven't seen him although I seem to remember nole dispatching him pretty routinely in cincy last year.

anyway, haven't seen muzz's next opponent either but they say he's not the same quality as harrison, so hopefully it'll be ruthless muzz.

... cos the australian summer ain't the place to be 'warming up'.

Im not ecstatic about that approach either even though AndyM got the job done. AndyM cannot afford a slow start especially in a GS, he loses the first set and puts himself under more pressure having to pull back. Good to hear he`s kept the outbursts in check, redirected his focus and energy into his game. AndyM said he doesn`t expect to see the benefits of having IvanL on board as his coach for 6 to 12months but I thought the emotional outbursts would be the first issue to be tackled and hopefully whatever discussion/techniques AndyM and IvanL have had/introduced will rectify this.

Alex, here`s hoping. You are spot on about the Aussie sun 3hrs plus on court sweating buckets doesn`t sound like a good idea to me either! Could do with some Aussie sun here in Scotland to warm us up though, its freezing!

I don't think there is any reason for concern about Andy having a tough match against Harrison. He had by far the toughest first round opponent. This is the kind of guy you don't want to face in your first match. He has a ton of potential, some great shots, comes in with no pressure, no expectations and can just swing for the fences. I was not shocked that he got a set off Andy.

However, Andy did keep the histrionics to a minimum and started changing his tactics, becoming more aggressive, taking some speed off his serve to get more first serves in and hitting some ferocious groundstrokes.

In my enthusiasm over seeing Lendl as Andy's new coach, I got a little carried away and said that this would be a big advantage for him right now. As others have said and Andy himself, this will take time for Lendl to learn Andy's game, watch him play and then assess what changes might be necessary. It will pay dividends down the road.

I did not mean to be insulting to Andy in saying that this would be like waving a magic wand, so my apologies to Andy fans. I was just so happy to see Lendl back in the game that I got carried away.

I thought that Harrison was exhausted in that fourth set. He had nothing left. However, Andy also looked tired playing four sets in that heat.

I think this gave Andy a chance to get into better form and a win over a worthy opponent in the first round is a good thing.

NNY, no need to apologise, you are only saying what you see.

For all u AndyM fans http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17article-O-OF7EE38000000578-87 3_468x286.jpg

that is meant to read http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/17article-O-OF7EE38000000578-87 3_468x286.jpg

Nole and Murray have very different first round opponents. Nole's is an aging one, Murray's is a young gun. There's no way Murray could bagel this Harrison; neither could Nole. The Nole of 2011 didn't bagel this Harrison at Cincy either.

Harrison is one of the more promising youngsters, together with Raonic and Tomic. He's just a bit too impatient at times but he has a solid all round game. I would like to see a Harrison/Tomic and a Harrison/Dimitrov match, having already seen how well Harrison played against Raonic last year at IW.

The voice of sense from lucky as usual. Harrison was a far tougher opponent than any of the other top 4 faced. And we all know Andy is a notorious slow starter. Don't see how Lendl can change that in one week, or quite possibly never.