he's acting like such a cock lately

Murray's the favourite? good for him, but it doesn't help him a lot," said the Swiss player at the presentation of the eight-man Kooyong Classic, considered the top tune-up for the grand slam starting on Monday.

But after losing twice to the Scot this month, once at an unofficial exhibition and in the Doha ATP semi-finals, Federer does give the number four player his due.

"He's put himself into a great position," said the 13-time grand slam champion who could pull level on the all-time best of 14 held by Pete Sampras with a title in Melbourne.

"He's playing well and finished well last year. But I'm surprised that the bookies say he's the favourite.

"He's never won a slam, it's surprising to hear."

Murray, losing US Open finalist to Federer four months ago, has come out on top in his most recent meetings against four major rivals: Rafael Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic and most recently Andy Roddick in the Doha final.

"Andy shown for a year that's he's knocking on the door," said Federer. "He's playing with good confidence.

"But winning a slam is a different animal, not many guys have been able to do it.

"Rafa and I have taken a lot of them. They don't come easy, but he has a chance like many other players."

federer would do well to remember that 16 different players won the 26 slams played from 1998 just before his dominance began. now his dominance appears to be over and he's got big losing records against murray and nadal.

Posted By: SCC 28 on January 13th 2009 at 15:45:26

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