As gloomy as British tennis has been in recent years, there may be the rare possibility of a profitable bet on Thursday evening.

 

Andy Murray and Tim Henman are both in action and are short prices to progress in the Legg Mason Classic in a sweltering Washington DC.

 

With Murray at around 8-15 and Henman at 3-10 – we are looking at only around evens for the double – but given the quality of their opponents it looks a confident bet.

 

19-year-old Murray is now under the tuition of coach Brad Gilbert – who was also the mentor of Messrs Agassi and Roddick.

He takes on 12th seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain, who beat Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-4 6-4.

 

Henman faces American Jan-Michael Gambill.