ANDY’S DEFINING YEAR
Former British No1 Rusedski thinks that 2015 will show if the Scot can reach the top once again
ANDY MURRAY was delighted to welcome a third British male entrant into the Australian Open singles when Kyle Edmund came through the qualifying event to make the main draw. The 27-year-old Scot is increasingly taking on a mentoring role when it comes to his younger compatriots, but when the main action begins he will need to focus exclusively on himself.
And according to former British No1 Greg Rusedski, who had a spell coaching Yorkshire’s Edmund last year, the stakes could hardly be higher this season for the former Wimbledon champion.
‘This year will be the defining year for Andy. I think 2015 will tell us if he will ever win a major again,’ said Rusedski, who described the scheduled run of Murray facing Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round and Roger Federer in the quarter-finals as a ‘brutal draw’.
While believing that he can get past both players, Rusedski reckons that he will need to display attacking intent to last the fortnight.
‘If he’s going to come out and win this tournament, he needs to be aggressive on the second serve, take on the forehand, and use the backhand up the line.
‘If he does those things he has a real shot. Andy has an incredible sense of what he needs to do at the big moments in the big matches, which is so important. [His coach] Amélie Mauresmo would have had all of the off-season to work on the areas of Murray’s game that needed working on and, physically, he looks very, very well.
‘His performance in Abu Dhabi [earlier this month] where he destroyed Rafael Nadal in two sets was the best I’ve seen him play in a long time. It’s a good opportunity to see where Andy really is.’
Murray certainly looks primed for a decent run at a tournament where his record is admirably consistent. Prior to his quarter-final loss 12 months ago to Roger Federer, when he was not long off returning from back surgery, he had reached three finals and a semi-final in four years.
He will kick off his campaign on the opening day of the tournament (in the early hours of tomorrow morning UK time) with a match on the newly-enhanced Margaret Court Arena, which now has a sliding roof and can house 7,500 spectators.
His opponent is 22-year-old Indian qualifier Yuki Bhambri, the world No314, who won the junior Australian Open six years ago.
He will have nothing to lose after coming through three preliminary rounds, and the same can be said of Edmund, who won his final eliminator with a gutsy 6-7, 6-4, 9-7 win over Australian Dane Propoggia in two hours and 23 minutes. Against Propoggia, Edmund’s phlegmatic temperament was stretched by the home crowd, who repeatedly suggested that he needed to get the sunscreen out in the heat. Edmund said: ‘I wasn’t playing 10 out of 10 tennis but I needed to be a 10 out of 10 competitor.’