MURRAY ADDS SHANGHAI TO BUMPER SCHEDULE

It was not just his recent award for having Britain’s ‘Rear of the Year’ that was giving andy Murray cause for celebration yesterday. He also added another tournament to his hectic schedule, which is a significant vote of confidence in the state of his fitness. after joking that ‘my wife has always told me I have a nice bum’, he addressed his decision to accept a wildcard into next month’s shanghai Masters, which will mean him committing to four straight weeks of playing, starting this month, in Zhuhai, Beijing, shanghai and antwerp. Overall, Murray is heartened by his physical health. It is highly unusual for him to play so many consecutive weeks but he pointed out that times have changed. ‘I am in a different place than I was six years ago when I was entering tournaments and I knew I was going to be getting to the end of all of them,’ said Murray, speaking at the launch of the tRR Nutrition products he is using. ‘I don’t know that that’s the case now and I’m not expecting to go and win 15 matches in three weeks in asia. My anticipation is that I’m probably not going to do as well and I’m looking to win one or two matches a week. If I won every tournament then obviously I would have to think: “OK, physically I need to take a break here”.’ His over-arching goal is to be properly ready for January’s australian Open, a year on from when it looked like he might have to retire. He is less convinced about playing in the new £12.4million atP Cup at the start of next season. the British team’s qualification is likely to hinge on his decision, which must be made today. He would have to use one of his protected ranking spots to guarantee entry for GB into the 24-team competition. If he does not then Britain would have to rely on one of Kyle Edmund, Dan Evans or Cam Norrie having a bumper end of the season to be ranked high enough to gain one of the last six spots. He said: ‘If I use my protected ranking, I will play as the No 1 player. I think if you are playing in a competition like that the best player should be picked to play. the australian Open would be the priority for me.’ Meanwhile, Belgium’s four-time Grand slam winner Kim Clijsters has announced a second comeback, aged 36, having first retired in 2007 before having her first child.