Tuesday’s Notes from the Australian Open

DEADLY SERVE

When Andy Murray spoke to his mother Tuesday morning on the phone, she had some distressing news.

His 24-year-old older brother, Jamie, had an accident at the Australian Open. He's fine, but a baby sparrow apparently is not.

"It's pretty traumatic," said No. 5-seeded Murray, the 2010 finalist. "I think he hit a sparrow. A baby sparrow, this morning when he was practicing with a serve. I think he killed it."

Jamie is playing doubles at the Australian Open with Belgium's Xavier Malisse, and often practices with his Andy.

On a more upbeat note for the Murray family, Andy advanced to the second round Tuesday when Karol Beck retired in the third set of match with a shoulder injury. Murray was leading 6-3, 6-1, 4-2 when Beck quit.

"Obviously, you'd rather finish the match off without your opponent being hurt," said Murray. "But, you know, it does happen quite a lot. So you just have to move on and get yourself ready for the next round."

Murray is trying to become the first British man to win a tennis major since Fred Perry in 1936. He came close at last year's Australian Open, where he was the only man to beat Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament en route to the final where he lost to Roger Federer.

All in all, it's "nice to be through to the second round with no drama," Murray said.

Details of his brother's on-court drama are still to come.

"My mum told me about it when I woke up this morning," Murray said. "But, yeah, I haven't seen him yet today."

Asked if the serve was aimed at the sparrow, he replied, "I hope not!"

ACHES AND PAINS OF PLAYING AT 40

When it's cold on the court, her body starts to cramp. Heat poses different challenges. There are not too many physical advantages to being a 40-year-old professional tennis player.

Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm says there are some mental advantages to playing opponents half her age, but those didn't apply Tuesday when she lost her opening-round match after being up a break in the third set against 21-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska.

Back in 1990, when Date-Krumm played in her first Australian Open, 25 of the women who're in this 2011 draw had not yet been born. That is not the case with Radwanska, who was an infant at the time.

Date-Krumm won their first set but lost the second. She was leading 4-1 in the third when Radwanska took a medical timeout for treatment on her back. The No. 12-seeded Polish player bounced back and won six of the last seven games to finish, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

"I always have a problem after an opponent gets a medical timeout," said Date-Krumm, adding that the breezy 23 Celsius (75 Fahrenheit) temperature didn't help. "My body, it gets cold. After that it starts to cramp a little bit."

Of course, when it's too hot or humid there's the matter of keeping hydrated. Three-set matches are "very tough" and recovery from fast-paced play is not as easy as it used to be, she said.

"For my age... it's not easy," Date-Krumm said, smiling. "But when I'm on the court, I don't think about my age. I just try my best."

The Japanese player, who is a slight and trim 1.63 meters and 53 kilogram (5' 4" and 117 pounds), doesn't look out of place on the tour. Yet she holds the distinction of being the third oldest player to contest an Australian Open women's singles match in the Open Era. Ahead of her are Virginia Wade, who was a couple months older when she reached the Australian Open second round in 1985, and Martina Navratilova, who last played the French Open and Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 47.

Date-Krumm owns eight WTA singles titles and reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 in 1995. She then took a 12-year retirement from tennis that ended in April 2008.

Currently ranked No. 56, Date-Krumm became the oldest player to reach a WTA singles final when she reached the Osaka decider in October.

The oldest player to win a WTA singles title was Billie Jean King in Birmingham in 1983 when she was 39 years, 7 months and 23 days old.

Asked if she had plans to hang up her racket anytime soon, Date-Krumm replied briefly, "No."

TENNIS TRUCE

Serbian star Novak Djokovic says he's facing a friend from Croatia in the second round, and is urging fans of both players not to allow ethnic tension to mar their match.

Chair-throwing, flag-hurling and other violent episodes involving Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian fans have ruined the otherwise relaxed environment at the Australian Open in recent years. Australia has a large population of Balkan immigrants and sports events are occasionally used to display the ethnic rivalries.

Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion, faces Croatia's Ivan Dodig in the second round Wednesday, drawing inevitable concerns about security.

"I just hope it's not going to happen," the third-seeded Djokovic said after winning his opening match. "We don't support this at all. We are very good friends actually off the court, all of us Serbian and Croatian players.

"There's no reason to create any kind of bad feeling about our countries."

Tournament director Craig Tiley said it was tournament policy not to discuss security plans but added that safety is one of the factors that determines the scheduling of matches.

"Our concern is comfort for everyone and safety for everyone," Tiley said.

The Djokovic-Dodig match is the last scheduled match at the Hisense Arena, the second show court at Melbourne Park, which requires a special ticket and has tighter security than outdoor courts accessible to anyone with a general grounds pass.

When trouble has flared in the past, it has usually been on hot days and fans have been consuming alcohol.

In 2009, dozens of youths clashed and about 30 Bosnian and Serbian youths were ejected from Melbourne Park after a chair-throwing brawl that broke out in an outdoor courtyard while Novak was playing Bosnian-born American Amer Delic. It was the second such clash in three years between mostly male youths of the former rivals in a bitter early-1990s war.

"We did have problems in the past, but that doesn't concern us," Djokovic said. "We are athletes. We are friends off the court. You're never going to see a problem between us."

With Sapa-AP