TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN:THE MANY hours Andy Murray has spent on his new Nintendo DS, given to him as a present by Simon Fuller, the founder of 19 Entertainment, Murray's new management company, have been altogether more taxing than the 45 minutes he spent defeating Romania's Andrei Pavel in the first round of the Australian Open.

The multitude of games includes one that allows a player to discover his brain age, although so far it does not appear to be able to tell Murray whether he is about to become the next world number one or when he will win his first slam, although such thoughts continue to exercise his little grey cells.

“It is in my head because that’s what I want to try and do,” said Murray, who next plays Marcel Granollers of Spain tomorrow. “I just need to make sure that I keep working hard and don’t get too far ahead of myself, because if I play like I did for the last three or four months of last year I can do it.

“But it’s one thing talking about it and it’s another thing trying to do it on the court, and that’s what I need to take care of.”

Granollers (22), broke through into the top 100 last year, and was called up for Spain’s Davis Cup final in Buenos Aires after Rafa Nadal pulled out, though he did not play in the victory over Argentina.

“I know him very well from juniors,” said Murray, who spent much of his junior career based in Barcelona. “We used to play against each other a lot. He’s the same age as Nadal and they were always on the same team in the under-14 and under-16 team competitions.”

Murray has generally held the upper hand. “I beat him quite a lot as a junior and the one time we played in the seniors I also won, but they were always close matches. He’s got a really long reach and he plays quite differently to a lot of the Spanish guys. He comes forward a lot and he has pretty decent volleys and a big serve.”

Whereas Murray’s match against Pavel lasted a mere 45 minutes, the veteran Romanian having to retire with a recurrence of a long-term back problem when 6-1, 3-1 down, the Spaniard was on court for more than three hours while defeating Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia.

Nadal, a potential semi-final opponent for Murray, made short work of his opening match, taking just 77 minutes to defeat the 75th-ranked Belgian Christophe Rochus, the world number one winning 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

Twelve years ago, Lleyton Hewitt, making his Australian Open debut as a 15-year-old, was beaten in the first round. Yesterday he lost at the same stage again, this time to Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, the runner-up in 2007, who won 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Hewitt, who had hip surgery last year, still believes he can get back into the top-10 and contention to win another grand slam, though it seems doubtful. The game has moved on since he won Wimbledon and the US Open in the days before Roger Federer emerged as a multi-champion.

Hewitt has been left behind.

Venus Williams is not looking beyond the second round after negotiating her way past Angelique Kerber in her opening match.

While Williams won 6-3, 6-3 she did not have everything her way against the German, who was making just her second appearance at Melbourne Park.

The American sixth seed raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening set, But Kerber fought back, mixing up her game well and received a huge cheer when she finally held serve to get her first game on the board.

Although she got it back to 5-3, Kerber could not stop Williams who closed out the set with an ace.

Younger sibling Serena was rarely extended on the way to a win against China’s Yuan Meng.

Although the heat and sun appeared to affect her at times she soon had the better of her opponent, hitting 26 winners as she cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win.

Fourth seed Elena Dementieva was just happy to have survived her three-setter against Kristina Barrois. Dementieva had to come from behind to win a first-set tie-break, then dropped the second, but finally got the better the German 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-1.

Former champion Amelie Mauresmo showed no sign of the recent thigh injury as she beat Olga Govortsova 6-4 6-3.

• Guardian Service