Andy Murray is keen to dilute the impression that he is an old-style chauvinist. He is all for equality of the sexes, he says. But he is at a loss to see why women at the Australian Open are receiving preferential treatment in extreme heat that will not ease before the weekend.

Having dealt with first-round opponent Go Soeda quickly and free of worry about his back, he would rather concentrate on his next opponent, the lightly regarded French qualifier Vincent Millot, whose world ranking of 267 should encourage little trepidation when they meet on Thursday.

However, when reminded he had questioned Tennis Australia's policy of allowing women in singles play to have a 10-minute break between the second and third sets in extreme heat, Murray said, “I don’t want to get into this debate to be honest.

“The women are more than capable of playing best of five sets. It takes [care of] all of the arguments that people want to have if the women play best of five. I don’t know why there’s the different rules for the heat, I don’t know exactly why that is. If there’s a medical reason for it, then I’m fine with it, if there isn’t, I’m not fine with it. That’s it.

“The players that play on the big courts, obviously they’re lucky, because they always know they’re going to get their matches done [because they have retractable roofs], and they always know they’re going to get to play, and that helps.

“That’s obviously the case if you play on the main courts. I think that’s going to change over time at Wimbledon, because they’ll get an extra roof [there], they’re doing it already. They’re going to get three here, they’re doing one at the US Open. It’s just, [it should be] all of the players. I don’t want them just to close the roof so I can get my matches done. It’s for the whole draw. It’s very, very tough playing in these conditions.”

Whatever the conditions, Murray should have no problems accounting for Millot, who had back problems of his own last year.

“Just after Roland Garros qualification I broke a bone in my back so I had four months off,” Millot said. “Now it is getting better. I felt something after the third match in qualifying, a little pain, but now I feel nothing. It is getting better. I hope so. And I hope he is not better.”

Greg Rusedski, commenting here for British Eurosport, is among several observers impressed by Murray's improved movement since his operation in September. The player himself was happy, too, that he can hit and move with more freedom “than at any time in the past 18 months”.

Rusedski said: “The thing we question is the movement and the serve when you have a back problem. But he showed lovely variety. What I liked was his patience to build the point. His positioning on the court was absolutely excellent and, when he had the chance to hit it, he really took on that forehand up the line very well.

“Another key is being able to dictate play and his opponent was absolutely perfect for him in allowing him to do that. Overall it was an excellent day for Andy. Things are working out nicely but let's not get too excited. Let's put everything into perspective. Yes, he played brilliantly, but Soeda didn't really trouble him. He wasn't like [Florian] Mayer in Doha [who came back from a set and 0-3 down to win], who has a little bit more variety.

“But Murray looks like he's improved from that match, which was 11 days ago, so there is optimism.

“As he said, it's going to take time to see how the body recovers, and that's going to be the true test. The test will be how do you beat [Roger] Federer, [Rafael] Nadal or [Novak] Djokovic back-to-back after coming back from surgery. If he gets to the quarter-finals or anything better than that, it will be an exceptional Australian Open, considering he had surgery only a few months ago.

“I think all the expectation and pressure has come off him. Now he's got to reset new goals and come back from this injury and all those other aspects. I think he felt so much pressure and now that's been done, and having won Wimbledon, he's enjoying his tennis much more.”