Murray: I will not give in to terrorist worries
ANDy MURRAY will travel to Belgium with the British Davis Cup squad next week insisting that life must carry on as normal in the face of the Paris terrorist attacks.
With the venue of Ghent only 40 miles from the now notorious Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, which has seen a wave of arrests, security arrangements for the match are being stiffened.
Murray, who yesterday came close to guaranteeing the year-end world No 2 position with an opening win at the Barclay ATP World Tour Finals, adopted a philosophical position on any safety threat.
‘I think everybody right now is concerned about things,’ he said after defeating Spain’s David Ferrer 6-4, 6-4. ‘But I do think the best thing that we can do is to live our normal lives, not change too much, because then the terrorists are the ones that are winning.
‘I don’t want to live my life in fear each time I step on a tennis court. So that’s what I’ll do.”
The International Tennis Federation have already assured that they will not be complacent. The Lawn Tennis Association will use their own security personnel to travel with the team, as happens at all ties.
As far as the more trivial pursuit of winning the Davis Cup is concerned, this has been a promising few weeks for Great Britain, with all members of the squad running into decent form. That includes Jamie Murray, who plays today in his second doubles match against India’s Rohan Bopanna and Romania’s Florin Mergea.
The most important of all is Andy, and he looks set to go into the final with confirmation that he has been the world’s best player in 2015 behind Novak Djokovic. If the rampant Serb wins his group match tonight against Roger Federer, that will mean Murray finishes second for the first time in his career, as the Swiss must now win every match here and the title to dislodge him. Even if he did, Murray could still hold him off with a win against either Stan Wawrinka or Rafael Nadal, who beat the Swiss player with surprising ease last night 6-3, 6-2.
‘It would be nice to finish No 2 but the main benefit of it is being seeded second for the Australian Open,’ he said. ‘It’s not that my aim was to finish the year No 2, or that it’s something I’ll be delighted about.’
More immediately pleasing was that his part preparation for this week on clay has not led to any physical issues in making the change to hard courts. Nor has it interfered too badly with ball-striking.
‘In the first couple of games my timing was a bit off but I got it back pretty quickly.
‘If you’re looking for a bit of rhythm, he (Ferrer) is a guy who makes you hit a lot of balls, the rallies are long so you can get into a rhythm.’
Murray benefited from his opponent’s eight double faults, but it was the kind of fluent display that he produced at the Paris Masters, and three breaks cancelled out him losing his serve to love at the start of the second set.
A huge crowd for a Monday November afternoon lapped it up and were a lot more supportive than the assembly will be at the Flanders Expo a week on Friday.
Murray will be an interested party when the decision about Aljaz Bedene’s eligibility is announced today.
He reiterated his support of the Slovenia-born player, while carefully emphasising that any selection decision will be down to Captain Leon Smith.
However, there was the strong hint that, in the unlikely event of Bedene winning his appeal to become available, Murray would be happy to see him join the team.
‘The process has taken such a long time and it is not his fault that it has come 10 days before the Davis Cup final,’ said the Scot. ‘If he wins his appeal and is able to play then if I’m the captain I’m picking the strongest team to try and win. But that’s Leon’s decision.’