Sir Andy just won’t accept the normal
Sir Andy Murray hopes to bury his Australian Open Finals jinx, but to do so he will have to see off Novak Djokovic (inset).
That is the view of his former coach, Miles Maclagan, who has watched Murray become a three-time Grand SlamChampion,adoubleOlympicgoldmedallist and now the World No. 1.
Sir Andy put together an unbeaten streak of 28 matches, before losing to Novak Djokovic in Qatar last Saturday. Now he is gearing up for the Australian Open.
The Scot has reached five finals in Melbourne without getting over the line. He begins his challenge to go one better this time against Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, ranked 93.
Success in Australia would be further proof of a man at the peak of his powers.
“From a coach’s perspective, it’s getting harder and harder to find areas where Andy can improve,” says Maclagan, who will be working as a Eurosport analyst during the tournament.
“His play has been so good in the last six months and he looks more comfortable with this‘front-foot’ style of tennis.
“But where he can gain an even bigger edge is mentally. If he can hold on to the No.1 ranking for a good length of time, players will struggle to see a way of beating him.
“He is building an aura about him. During his long run of wins, you started to wonder how opponents would even string points together.
“If he stays on that course, he will have a real psychological edge.
“It’s taken quite a long time compared to others for him to reachWorld No. 1, but Andy won’t let it go without a fight.
“Some have lost a bit of motivation when they have reached the top of the mountain. But Andy would have the same competitive spirit whether he was ranked 1 or 500.
“He wants to win every point. He almost has this unreasonable streak where he won’t accept what’s normal.
“Sometimes you have to accept a guy like Milos Raonic will hit an ace against you, but that’s what drives Andy on.”
However, Murray will start as a narrow second favourite for the Aussie title. Djokovic has been victorious six times down under, including in five of the last six years.
The Serb suffered a dip last year after winning the French Open but his success in Qatar was a timely reminder of his threat.
A n d Maclagan s aw si g n s that Djokovic was returning to his very best.
“Coming into that, Andy had been far and away the best player in the world in the second half of 2016,” he says. “By his own high standards, there had been a lot of question marks over Djokovic and some below- par performances.
“But during that match, some of the old Novak was back. That win puts him right back in the mix for Melbourne.”
While we have the top seed in the men’s draw, Great Britain also has the form player in the women’s section.
Jo Konta comes into Melbourne on the crest of a wave. She was a semifinalist at the Australian Open 12 months ago at the start of her breakthrough year. She finished inside the top 10 and has started 2017 with a semi-final in China and then victory at the warm-up event in Sydney. M a c l a g an rates her as a dark horse to be the champion on January 28.
“It’ll be very tough to mat c h her achievement of 12 months ago, but there are openings in the women’s game,” he reasons.
“Serena Williams is more up and down than she used to be and a player like Jo could come through. But she must not lose focus and she can only worry about her own draw.”
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Jo Konta.