The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scot feels he has ‘nothing to prove’ after Federer loss
MURRAY’S HOPES: Continued from page 64
He has been helped by being granted a Monday start, when he will take on Spain’s David Ferrer, while he knows he is in good form on the hard courts having reached the final of the Paris Masters last weekend.
Murray said: “The preparations have been tricky obviously with my preparation being mainly on the clay but it was never going to be perfect.
“But it’s also a good situation to be in. I would have signed up to be in this situation at the end of the year in comparison to last year and hopefully I can play some good tennis here and in Davis Cup.
“I definitely have a chance to win here. I have to be a bit realistic. The first few days here I need to switch surfaces and balls and I may not be timing the ball perfectly. But hopefully as it goes on I’ll start to play better tennis.
“I think the conditions in Paris are normally fairly similar to here so it’ll be interesting to see how I get on but I do think I’m playing well enough to go far.”
Murray is bidding to end a year in the world’s top two for the first time after the most consistent season of his career.
That looked a distinctly unlikely turn of events when his campaign at the O2 last year ended with the worst defeat of his career – 6-0 6-1 to Roger Federer.
The match left Murray shellshocked and resulted in his good friend Tim Henman questioning his game and partnership with coach Amelie Mauresmo, but the Scot insists there are no demons to exorcise.
“I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anybody,” he said.
“It was obviously a tough way for me to finish the year last year but I gained something positive from it.
“I feel like I went away and worked extremely hard on my game and came back and have had the most consistent year of my life. I don’t feel that match affected me in a negative way at all.”
Murray has had plenty of highlights this year: beating Rafael Nadal to win the Masters title on clay in Madrid, winning another Masters crown in Canada and reaching a fourth Australian Open final, among others.
But the failure to add to his two grand slam titles means he stopped short of declaring it his best.
He said: “It’s been a good year. I’ve worked very hard to get up to the top, which I didn’t feel like I was quite there last year, especially the final six months of the year.
“Davis Cup’s obviously been great. I’ve won a couple of Masters series, my clay-court season was the best it’s ever been.
“I didn’t manage to win a slam, which is always a bit disappointing, but I’ve played very consistently through all the tournaments this year and that was something I wanted to do so that’s been a positive.”