Leon Smith, team captain for the Great Britain Davis Cup team has backed the decision of his star player Andy Murray to withdraw from this week’s Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I tie against Slovakia, scheduled to be held over the weekend in the Scottish city of Glasgow, Murray’s home town.

Murray was part of the Great Britain side in the Davis Cup that won their last two rubbers to secure promotion to the Group I of the zone meaning that they only have one group to win in order to return to the prestigious World Group.

Andy Murray was defeated in Miami in a surprising fashion after he was expected to win the Sony Ericsson open.Murray was broken seven times as the world number 118 secured a 6-1 7-5 victory in an hour and 35 minutes.

The loss comes two weeks after Murray was dumped out the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells by Donald Young.

And the Scot has failed to win a single set since defeating David Ferrer at the Australian Open in January.

Andy Murray is set to play Karol Beck at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old Scot, seeded fifth, is in the same half of the draw as world number one Nadal.

Fellow British number one Elena Baltacha takes on a qualifier in her opening match in Melbourne.

Britons Anne Keothavong, Heather Watson and Katie O'Brien are still involved in the qualifying tournament.

Murray will play Beck for the first time, with the 28-year-old Slovakian currently ranked 104 in the world.

Andy Murray say that he needs to be more stronger. The Scot, 23, made a disappointing third-round exit at the US Open, which Nadal went on to win and so complete the career Grand Slam.

"I've got four or five months before the next Slam," Murray told BBC Sport. "I need to get physically stronger, improve my game and then I'll give myself the chance to beat him."

Murray had gone into the US Open with many predicting he could win his first Grand Slam title after a superb run at the Toronto Masters in the build-up, beating Nadal and Roger Federer on his way to winning the tournament.

ANDY Murray goes into his final preparations for next week’s French Open where he will be hoping to improve on last year’s tournament which saw him reach the quarter-finals. He watched the last grand slam final from prime Wimbledon Tickets.

That marked a career best at Roland Garros for Murray who looked back to somewhere like more usual form in Madrid last week.