Andy Murray up and running

A year that promises so much for men’s tennis began in the best possible way for Andy Murray yesterday. The Capitala World Championships in Abu Dhabi may have been only a pre-season exhibition tournament but there was no doubting the commitment and tenacity that Murray and his opponent, Rafael Nadal, brought to the final.
In the end, Murray triumphed — showing the same aggression and speed around the court that lifted him to four in the world last year — but not without the most enthralling struggle. After winning the first set and going a break ahead in the fifth game of the second, he was immediately broken by Nadal and unable to hold serve at 5-6, which allowed the Spaniard to draw level at one set apiece.
Neither player showed the slightest sign of easing off before this week’s ExxonMobil Open in Qatar, where Murray is defending champion. The seventh game of the deciding set lasted almost 10 minutes and ended with Murray breaking Nadal’s serve for a 4-3 lead. The Scot won his service game and then broke Nadal once more to round off a rewarding day at the office. Asked about his chances of a first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, which begins in a fortnight, he said: “That’s what I’m aiming for.”
With Roger Federer, beaten by Murray on Friday, and Novak Djokovic, Murray and Nadal complete a quartet at the top of the men’s game to provide a rivalry that can endure over the next 40 weeks as they face a marathon of transglobal travel taking in such hallowed venues as Melbourne Park, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows. And for the first time, the season’s touring climax will be staged in Britain.
The world’s leading eight players will convene at London’s O2 Arena in November to contest the season finale — the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The event is likely to return to the venue for several years. In one of his final acts before standing down as ATP executive chairman at the end of last year, Etienne de Villiers insisted: “London is the world’s most cosmopolitan city with a vibrancy and energy that makes it ideally suited to hosting this event. The ATP visits over 30 countries, so having our end-of-season finale in such a diverse city could not be more appropriate.”
Three of the prime contenders in the starting blocks for the race to the O2 have Grand Slam titles to defend. On that never-to-be-forgotten rain-splattered Sunday evening in July, Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg 28 years earlier to lift both the French Open and Wimbledon titles in the same year. Roger Federer was vanquished in those two finals and relieved by Nadal of the world No 1 title he had held for a record 237 weeks. However, he regrouped to win a fifth successive US Open title that took him just one Grand Slam triumph short of Pete Sampras’s stunning collection of 14. And in a couple of weeks Djokovic will defend his Australian Open title, won with his 21st birthday still four months away, when he underlined that the former war-torn state of Serbia is now a true tennis power.
In terms of these accomplishments, Murray remains the odd man out. True, he amassed five titles in 2008 — second only to Nadal’s eight. Since reaching his first major final in New York last September, he has stood in fourth place on the South African Airways ATP Rankings — equalling the best positions occupied by British predecessors Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski. But the young Scot is brutally aware that good players become regarded as exemplary only when they win one of the four Grand Slam titles, and that must be his aim going into the new year.
So when people talk about the big four of the game, does Murray feel his inclusion is justified? He can legitimately point to the fact that he was triumphant in his last meeting with each of the other three when ranking points were at stake.
“It depends which way you look at it,” said the 21-year-old from Dunblane. “It gives me great confidence to know I am closer to winning that Grand Slam title than I have ever been. If you look at the rankings, you will see I am still a long way behind, but my results against those guys speak for themselves. I beat Djokovic in our past two matches, Federer three times last year and Nadal at the US Open. I’ve proved I can win against them. But I have always said I want to win a major. Going into a new season, I don’t think that brings any added pressure. I know I can do it and it’s a boost to know I have gone so close.”
A month of committed hard physical work at the University of Miami under the guidance of his support team, Miles Maclagan, Matt Little, Jez Green, Andy Ireland and Louis Cayer, will make the 2009 version of Andy Murray even stronger than the player who finished last year so impressively at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. He has gained an extra half-stone of muscle weight that will aid his powers of resilience and add even more velocity to his vastly improved serve. “The fitness and strength aspect is so important,” he insists. “It’s probably best shown in my performances against Djokovic. I knew I could always give him problems, but just needed to make my game better by being physically stronger.
“He is always going to be in contention for the big events because he plays well pretty much every week and his game is so solid. Rafa had to miss the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai because of his injuries, but his knees will be fine after some time off. Federer will also be trying hard to get back his No 1 ranking, and he is more than capable of doing so if he plays with his old consistency.”
Tomorrow the action starts again on the restructured ATP World Tour. Murray will be in Qatar alongside Nadal and Federer as he attempts to retain the title he won by beating Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka. Djokovic is already in Australia and will be the star attraction at a new £40m Queensland Tennis Centre in Brisbane.
Globally, the economic situation is biting ever harder, but tennis seems oblivious. Overall there will be a 20% rise in prize-money on the ATP World Tour this year. When the action begins at London’s O2, the prize fund will stand at $5m (£3.4m), with the eventual ATP World Tour Champion of the Year pocketing a potential $1.5m cheque.
Five months earlier, the sliding roof over Wimbledon’s Centre Court will whir into action. In Madrid the standard of clay-court tennis will be raised by the opening of Caja Majica. The new home of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open — one of the nine-event ATP Masters 1000 series — will boast 16 clay courts. Justification for such expenditure is not easy but the necessity is for top-flight contestants. The leading quartet of players — augmented by contenders such as the French triumvirate of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet, seasoned Americans Andy Roddick and James Blake and the Argentine duo of Juan Martin del Potro and David Nalbandian, who will attempt to put their Davis Cup final differences behind them — ensures that competition will be fierce.