Andy Murray believes playing in the same era as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is a blessing rather than a curse.

Murray will tomorrow begin his quest to join the dominant players of his generation as a grand slam winner when his US Open campaign gets under way at Flushing Meadows with a first-round tie against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

The British star reached last year's final, beating Spain's Nadal in the semi-finals but losing in straight sets to Swiss superstar Federer in the decider.

And while he has replaced Nadal as number two in the world during the Spaniard's eight-week absence through injury, Murray recognises he and his peers have a tough time breaking up what he described as "the two best rivals ever", with 21 grand slam titles between them, 15 of them Federer's.

"I view Roger and Rafa as the two best rivals ever and I'm sure by the time they've finished they'll have the most slams between two rivals by quite a long way," Murray said last night at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre as he finalised his preparations for the final slam of the year.

"They're obviously two of the best ever and it's a pretty tough time to play with those sort of guys but at the same time I think you raise your game to the competition you play against.

"When I played those guys when I was younger I realised that I needed to get a lot better and work physically and I think my game's gone in the last four five years to another level, physically.

"I don't feel as if I was unfortunate to be born in this era, I think it's a great thing to be able to play alongside those two."

For Murray, though, their presence in the draw, with world number three Nadal, the current Australian Open champion, seeded to face the Scot in the semi-finals, means he assesses success in the grand slams differently.

He said: "You've got the two of the best players ever playing just now so it's a little bit disrespectful to the other players to view it as being a failure not to get to the final.

"I'll be disappointed, for sure, because I want to try and win every tournament I play in.

"But I think I have a good enough understanding of tennis that you can still have a good slam and not win it."

He continued: "One of the few things that I want to do now in tennis is to win a slam.

"It's something that's incredibly difficult to do but something I believe is possible.

"I think a lot of players say when they win their first Slam it's sort of a relief because it's so much hard work that you put into it.

"I'm hoping I can do it here."

The 22-year-old said he was always excited about playing in New York and reiterated that the US Open was his favourite event.

"I played here in the juniors first time at 15 or 16 and just really, really enjoyed the atmosphere of everything that went with it," Murray said.

"Obviously I have good memories from winning the juniors here (in 2004), and then I saw a few night matches and loved it.

"I wanted to have the opportunity to play in one of them and it's just a very, very different atmosphere to the other grand slams if you look at the crowds and the way the matches go on centre court with the big screen and the music, the stars that come to watch.

"It tastes a little bit different from the other ones."

Murray said he found the US Open easier to handle than Wimbledon, where he is always the centre of attention.

He said: "It's normal (in New York), it's not like you get followed around.

"People are not following you back to your hotel whereas back home you can get people waiting outside your house or following you to dinner if you want to go out and it's not like that here.

"So it makes it a bit easier to relax away from the court I guess."