IF PRACTICE makes perfect, Andy Murray has a long way to go to find his feet on clay. Luckily, the Scot, 18, knows it and after scrambling into the second round of the Open Seat de Godo here yesterday, he said that practice, and not a new coach, was top of his wish list as he builds towards a tilt at the French Open next month.

“I haven’t made a decision yet coach-wise,” he said. “I’ve thought about it a bit, but it is not my No 1 priority. I want to play matches on clay and get better.”

His 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Marcel Granollers-Pujol, a Spanish wild-card entry ranked No 291 in the world who was making his ATP Tour debut, was not one for the scrapbook, but his battling qualities were enough to give him his first victory in more than six weeks.

Beaten by Jean-Rene Lisnard, of Monaco, in the first round in Monte Carlo last week — his first tournament since his split from Mark Petchey — Murray had to show all his battling qualities to come from a set and 4-2 down to win.

“I didn’t really do anything that well, but I kept fighting the whole match and that’s the most important thing,” he said. “If you can come through matches like that when you are playing badly, things can only get better.”

With gusting winds making life difficult, Murray broke to lead 2-0 but immediately dropped his own serve and as the mistakes began to flow, Granollers-Pujol grew in confidence.

Murray looked down at the court several times as he struggled to change direction and after receiving a warning for swearing early in the second set, he was staring defeat in the face.

But just when it looked over, Murray lifted his game and with Granollers-Pujol suffering from cramp in both legs, the world No 43 eased through to victory and a difficult match against another Spaniard, David Ferrer, the No 5 seed. “I knew it was going to be a tough match because I lost to him only a year ago on clay 6-4, 6-1 [in Ettlingen, Germany],” Murray said. “I haven’t played that much on clay since about the [time of the] French Open last year whereas he plays almost all his matches on clay.”

Injury and illness have not allowed Murray to train as hard as he would have liked over the past two months and he had time for only two hours on court at the Real Club de Barcelona on Sunday after arriving late the night before.

“After this tournament I am going to practise as hard as I can before my next tournament,” he said. “Last year, I played well in some matches, but consistently I’ve not been that great on clay.

“I’ve always said that hard courts are my best surface but because I said clay was my favourite, everyone thought it was my best. I like playing on it. I mean, I lost a match last week, 7-5 in the third that I could have won 6-4, 6-4, and this was only my third match on clay [on the ATP Tour], so it’s not that much of a crisis. Look at [Rafael] Nadal, he hasn’t exactly played that well on grass courts.”

Though Murray struggled with his own game during the tie, the sound coming from the other side of the net probably did not help his concentration. Maria Sharapova eat your heart out. Granollers-Pujol grunted loud and long after almost every shot, the range, length and variation of it all suggesting that a career in opera may be a viable alternative if his tennis dream fails to take off.

“I didn’t really notice it that much,” Murray said. “I know some people make a big deal out of grunting, but as long as you don’t make a noise when the other player hits the ball then it’s fine. He was even grunting when he wasn’t hitting the ball hard, which was a bit strange.”