#360view: Timing is everything as Murray plots his return to the top

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  • Outstretched: Andy Murray.

    This year was always going to be a tough season for Andy Murray. Between the back surgery he underwent end of 2013 and his split with his coach and mentor Ivan Lendl in March, the world No6 was – putting it mildly – dealt a tough hand.

    The grit he showed in fighting to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London was admirable but still, the fact remains that Murray accumulated a woeful 0-9 record against tennis’ ‘Big Three’ of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 2014, and closed out his season with an embarrass­ing 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Federer.

    His season finale was a brutal wake-up call. It wasn’t like a mobile phone alarm ringing or even having cold water splashed on your face to get up. This was a sledgeham­mer to the head. And how Murray rebounds from this reality check in 2015 could either establish him as one of the sport’s greats, or humble him deeper into mediocrity.

    For someone who has had a relatively bad year, Murray still managed to reach the quarters at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open and the semis at Roland Garros.

    In spite of everything, he made sure he was one of the remaining eight players in each of the four majors this season but when he did reach the closing stages of a grand slam, he was repeatedly outclassed (by Federer in Melbourne, Nadal in Paris, Grigor Dimitrov at Wimble­don, Djokovic in New York).

    As the season progressed, Murray remained title-less since Wimbledon in 2013 and when he finally broke his drought, it came at an obscure ATP 250 event in Shen­zhen where the average ranking of the four players he defeated was 86. But still, a trophy is a trophy and it sparked some fight in the Scot, who went on to capture two more titles, albeit in Vienna and Valencia – hardly the biggest highlights of an ATP season.

    But it was essential for Murray’s own good to qualify to London because it helped him realise the gulf that has developed between himself and Djokovic and Federer.

    He himself said that he would rather not forget that painful beat­down he got from the Swiss and that he will use it to focus on how much work needs to be done in the offseason.

    It would have been misleading had he not gone to London and finished his year with those wins over Tommy Robredo, where he saved 10 match points against the Spaniard over two finals. He would have felt good about himself but he wouldn’t have been aware of how far he was from the top guys’ level.

    For now, it’s important for eve­ryone to realise that with Murray, things always take time in com­parison to the ‘Big Three’. Let’s not forget that it took him four grand slam final defeats before he won his first major. Even the way he constructs a point during a match feels like a long and elaborate strategic plan.

    While Nadal can return from a seven-month injury layoff and reach nine consecutive finals, with Murray it is simply not like that and it’s unfair to compare.

    One key ingredient next year will be getting comfortable once again with his coaching set-up whether it is with Amelie Mauresmo or someone else.

    It’s a fact that Djokovic and Federer appear to be at a complete­ly different level at the moment, but given time, there’s no reason Murray can’t reclaim his place at the top and turn the ‘Big Three’ into a four once again.

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