Murray's Wimbledon hopes boosted by Ferguson's advice

British tennis ace Andy Murray has said that former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has given him "gold dust" advice and have boosted his hopes to win the Wimbledon.

Ferguson was in the Royal Box on Wednesday to watch his fellow Scot reach Friday's semi-final against Jerzy Janowicz by defeating Spain's Fernando Verdasco, the Mirror reports.

Stating that the football legend later gave him a pep talk on handling the pressures of home expectations, the US Open and Olympic champion said that getting that sort of advice from a person of Ferguson's calibre is like gold dust for which he would not be sharing too much of it.

Murray further said that he spoke with Ferguson for about 20 minutes on issues like his retirement, football, the Wimbledon and everything that goes with it.

The report further adds that Murray may be using Ferguson-style mind games in a bid to reach his fourth consecutive Grand Slam final.

Insisting that top-seed Novak Djokovic is still the man to beat, the Scot, who has reached his fifth consecutive Wimbledon semis, however, said that he thinks that Djokovic is still the favourite at Wimbledon given his No.1 position in the world, his good form in the tournament and his wins.

Stating that the Serb deserves to be the favourite, Murray also said that although Djokovic has had some tough matches against some good grass court players in the last few rounds in Tommy Haas and Tomas Berdych, he has won those matches comfortably without too many problems.

Murray also said that Djokovic has earned the right to be the favourite with his results.

However, Murray, who beat Janowicz in straight sets in a Davis Cup match in Liverpool in 2009, said that he would not be intimidated by Janowicz, even though he is big and has a big serve, despite struggling against Verdasco's serve in the quarter-finals.

Stating that the return is the best part of his game, Murray admitted that it is impossible to control the serve sometimes, adding that while playing against players with big serves, the sets come down to a just a few points, adding that he will need to take his chances when they come.

However, the 22nd ranked Janowicz does not appear to worried, saying that a possible victory in his Grand Slam semis would be nothing special for his career, adding that he is confident that he can beat Murray.