HE'S back in the ball game.

Andy Murray has rebounded from back surgery to state his intention to continue his record of success here.

Murray has reached the semi-finals in SW19 for every year since 2009 and is determined to keep that run going.

He faces Blaz Rola, the 23-year-old Slovenian later this afternoon, but the Scot will not be underestimating the rookie who has only been on tour for a year.

"He's a big guy. He takes chances. He goes for his shots," said Murray.

"He probably doesn't have much grass-court experience because he hasn't been on the tour that long. He's going to do well, for sure, because he has weapons.

"I saw him play his match against James [Ward] at the French Open and he's a tricky opponent with his style. He can generate power from the back of the court. He moves pretty well for a big guy, too."

Rola, though, should not detain Murray too long. His bigger tests should come later in the tournament where he could face the likes of big- hitting Kevin Anderson or the hugely-talented Grigor Dimitrov.

Novak Djokovic could await in the semi-final and Rafa Nadal in the final.

Murray is rightly proud of the way he shoulders the burden of expectation at Wimbledon and still reaches the last four on such a regular basis. But he believes Nadal is a phenomenon in what he has achieved at Roland Garros.

"For me, what Rafa [Nadal] has done at the French Open might be the biggest achievement in all of sports," explained the 27-year-old.

"For an individual sport to win a tournament nine out of 10 years, a tournament that is so physical, it is mentally very draining as well. It's very, very impressive.

"It is the hardest thing in sport to keep getting to the latter stages of the major events and performing year in, year out.

"Why? Because people keep improving, young players start coming through, you start to age a little bit and when you lose it becomes harder to improve your game when you get older.

"You can make up for that with experience and understanding of how to deal with certain situations."

Murray dealt with all the hoopla brilliantly on Monday. He marched on to Centre Court to open his defence and was greeted with a standing ovation.

There is much that is familiar to Murray at Wimbledon. He is already both veteran and champion at SW19.

But there is one major change to his life at the All-England Club: he is no longer asked whether he can win Wimbledon and, after Monday, he can no longer be asked what it is like to go out on Centre Court to defend the title.

"I've been asked about it a lot over the last couple of months," he explained.

"Even if you feel fine about it in your head, but if people ask you about it every single day, it starts to become a bigger deal. Just like winning Wimbledon - every single day someone asks you."

And will it feel like a normal Wimbledon from now on?

"I think so. I don't see too much changing between now and the end of the tournament," he said.

One aspect that has changed is that Murray comes into the tournament with a new coach in Amelie Mauresmo.

They sat on Centre Court on Sunday and plotted how they sought to make his defence of his crown a successful.

His victory against Goffin was followed with a meeting with Shaquille O'Neal, the former basketball player.

Murray is a huge fan of the NBA and said: "A tennis match is not exactly the place I would expect to see him and he told me it was his first time, and that he really enjoyed it."