ANDY Murray predicted last night that Scottish football is set to pick up again now Rangers are back in the Ladbrokes Premiership. The world's best tennis player, who had a trial with the Ibrox side as a teenager before committing to tennis, opted out of watching Scotland's 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley. While he feels unqualified to offer an opinion on why so many young Scottish footballers struggle to become world class, he feels that the financial problems which afflicted Rangers didn't help and interest in the game north of the border will pick up now they are back in the top flight.

"I have no idea because I don't know what any of them have done when they are young," said the World No 1. "I don't know what sort of training and stuff they do. So it is difficult for me to say. But I think obviously the level of Scottish football has probably gone down a little bit when everything happened with Rangers, I don't think that helped, so hopefully in the next few years now that they are back in the main league that will help get a bit more interest in it again."

Murray faces another three-time Grand Slam champion today in the form of Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, knowing that a straight sets defeat could see him eliminated before the semi-finals and hand back his No 1 ranking to Novak Djokovic, while a victory would move his winning run on to 22 matches, equalling his best ever. If everything goes to plan, Sunday's final would be his 87th match of the season, the most in one year during his time in the sport. But while he should be resting up his aching limbs, the 29-year-old revealed that he has one love match to attend to.

Andy and Jamie's dad Willie is marrying his long-term partner Sam Watson in a fortnight's time and before then there is his stag do, at some unspecified location in Scotland, to be factored in. "I am going to be at home because my dad is getting married two weeks after we finish here and has got the stag do next weekend," said Andy. "So I have got that to look forward to."

Wawrinka, a man who has claimed one Grand Slam a year for the last three years, is living up to his reputation of a man whose play improves the longer a tournament goes on. Murray has won nine of the pair's 16 career meetings, but only one of the last four, including a defeat at this venue 12 months ago.

"He is always dangerous," said Murray, who re-iterated his intention, all things being equal, to play for Great Britain on Davis Cup duty in Ottawa in February. "Sometimes early in tournaments it takes him a while to find his range but once he does he isn't easy to stop."