Undercooked Andy Murray struggles with readjustment to hard courts in losing to Ernests Gulbis in Montreal Struggling to regain competitive intensity after a holiday in the Bahamas, he said: "I had two full weeks off to recharge the batteries, so I probably could have done with five or six days of extra preparation." Beneath the perfectionism, he did still manage a smile. I would have signed up for winning Wimbledon and having a day less to get ready, that's for sure. We ought not to perceive undue alarm in Murray's premature exit in Montreal, given that last summer he lost at the same stage here and again in Cincinnati the following week, but still won the US Open. By the same token, he has won both warm-up events twice but never at Flushing Meadows in the same year, so the plans being concocted with coach Ivan Lendl remain firmly on track. "The timing is slowly coming back," he said. It will be a different challenge mentally to make sure that I'm 100 per cent ready for the US Open. By the time it comes around, I hope that I'm playing my best tennis. For now Murray is attempting to rediscover his feel for the American hard courts in doubles, alongside fellow Scotsman Colin Fleming. He has not played doubles at a Masters event since Indian Wells in March, with his brother Jamie, and this time the call came unexpectedly when Fleming asked the world No 2 to partner him five minutes before the registration deadline. "It has been exactly what I needed," Murray argued, after the pair reached the quarter-finals. It is crucial to be out there in match conditions, playing big points. With each one I feel that it can only help me heading into New York.