Higueras tips Andy to come back strong

THE training shoes slap on the hard court and the tennis balls leave the racket with a satisfying whack, but the most profound noises at the Gannochy Centre in Stirling University yesterday were the echoes of Andy Murray. Eight potential stars were training under the eye of Jose Higueras, a viable contender for greatest tennis coach ever, but the talk was of the current uncertainty for the three-time grand slam winner and of the future of the Murray legacy. The LTA has set up one of its national academies at Stirling and it is operated by Tennis Scotland on the very courts once trod upon by Andy and brother Jamie. Higueras, 66, former coach to Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, was invited to cast his eye over the programme which started in August last year before speaking at a conference this weekend. He cautioned patience and strongly supported the principles of the academy in trying to create good people as well as good players. Patience, too, may be the key for Murray, whose complications from a hip injury may keep him out of the sport until the grass-court season in the summer. Higueras said of the double Wimbledon champion: ‘I have no doubt he can get back but he must be physically right to compete with the top guys. I do not think it is an injury that is easy to come back from but I am a big believer that you can do things you think you can’t. ‘If there is any chance this can be done, I believe Andy can do it.’

Higueras, who revitalised the American programme at the USTA when he joined in 2008, said: ‘The most important part of our body is our brain. That determines how we do things. You don’t win three grand slams without that strength. He has the best asset of all.’ Blane Dodds, chief executive of Tennis Scotland, also invoked Murray when he said of the formation of the academy: ‘One of the factors was having an ambition. Andy, Jamie (doubles) and Gordon Reid (wheelchair tennis) became world No 1s. ‘They showed you can come from a small country and be the best in the world. We are on that legacy journey now.’ The only Scot in the programme is 15-year-old Matthew Rankin. It would be unfair to compare him to his hero, Andy, but there are similarities in their experience already. Matthew picked up a racket at three and also had a decision to make as he headed towards his teenage years. Like Murray, he faced the choice of pursuing a route on court or on the football pitch as he was scouted by Hibernian and Hearts while playing in goal for Hutchison Vale. He chose to follow the path of the Dunblane hero. ‘I have spoken to him a couple of times recently,’ he said. ‘I have a big motivation to be like him. I asked for some tips and he told me to stick in and work hard.’