With the ATP World Tour Finals just around the corner, world number three Andy Murray says he is now in a position to win the title that has so far eluded him over the past four years (why not bet on Andy Murray with bet365?).
Murray, speaking at the Paris Masters 500 this week, has a fortnight to crown off a wonderful season and with the Finals just a week away the Scot is brimming with confidence. Compare the current-day Andy Murray with that of 12 months ago and you can see why.
“This year I want to make sure that come the start of that event, I’m 100% ready to go,” Murray told BBC Sport.
Indeed, the Scot is a different man to the one he was a year ago. Heading into the 2011 Tour Finals, Murray was without a Grand Slam or Olympic medal to his name, exhausted from winning Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai over three weeks and struggling with injury.
Murray, always a favourite in the tennis betting offers, was forced to withdraw from the Finals with a groin strain that effectively ended his season in ignominy and disappointment.
“I know how I felt at the end of last year,” he said. “It was really tough for me to work all that time to get the chance to play at the O2 and not be able to finish the tournament.”
Twelve months on, with the confidence of a Grand Slam title under his belt and in steady form from the closing tournaments of the ATP tour, Murray is in a far better place to stage an assault on the Finals this November. The Scot will have to overcome the world’s top two players – Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – although his victories over them in respective Olympic and US Open finals will be at the forefront of Murray’s mind.
He’s got nothing to fear now and is primed to lift the trophy; London is about to witness something spectacular once again.