Andy Murray sounds tired. It is barely 8am in Cincinnati and the young Scot is reflecting on his breakthrough maiden Masters Series victory over Novak Djokovic the previous evening.

Andy Murray sounds tired. And little wonder. It is barely 8am in Cincinnati and the young Scot is reflecting on his breakthrough, if strength-sapping, maiden Masters Series victory over Novak Djokovic the previous evening.

Murray, it must be said, is hardly renowned for his overflowing exuberance during his dealings with the media but his initial weariness is understandable on this occasion. As well as the early rise for the transatlantic teleconference, Murray was in recovery mode after battling with courtside temperatures all week that crept beyond 100F, adding to the difficulties involved in trying to outmanoeuvre the third-best player in the world.

There is little time for contemplation, however, despite the 21-year-old's career ascending to yet another plane. He was due to arrive back in London this morning after flying overnight from Ohio and will then head to China, via Helsinki, tomorrow morning to compete in the Olympic Games.

It leaves the new world No.6 feeling somewhat discombobulated. "So I'll arrive in Beijing on Wednesday morning," he confirms. "No, Thursday morning. Whatever. I've got a lot of travelling in the next few days."

His hectic schedule does not ease up after that. Just eight days after the conclusion of the tennis events in China, Murray is scheduled to appear on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows.

Many tennis experts believe the US Open represents his best chance yet to land a grand slam title but Murray is not one for getting ahead of himself. Suggestions that the Olympics will be no more than a grandiose warm-up for the real event are met with short shrift.

"If the US Open was my priority I wouldn't be flying all the way to China," he answers in typical matter-of-fact style.

Warming to the topic, Murray reveals he is not travelling halfway across the world just to play tennis. Sure, a medal, preferably gold, would be nice but it is the whole experience - the warm camaraderie with athletes from other disciplines, the chance to stay in the Olympic village, and the rare opportunity to represent your country in a unique setting - that excites Murray as much as his time on court.

He recalls, as a nine year-old, being mesmerised as Andre Agassi clinched tennis gold at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and, in recent years, watching Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson excel in athletics, and Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps do likewise in swimming.

Now, aged 21, Murray enthuses about his chance to add his own name to the Olympic story. "It's a big sacrifice to go over there but it shows how important most of the players view it. To be involved in the Olympics is something very few athletes can say they have done at the end of their careers.

"I can't wait to stay in the athletes village. I think quite a few of the tennis players are staying in hotels but I don't understand why you would want to. Once you make the decision to play in the Olympics you wouldn't want to stay anywhere else apart from the village. It will be a great experience to be around some of the best athletes in the world and speak to some of them hopefully too.

"When I was younger I used to love watching all the track and field in the Olympics and seeing Agassi winning gold was awesome. Just to get the opportunity to be in such a huge competition is something I'm really looking forward to.

"The tennis is unbelievably important, of course, but it's an honour and a privilege to get this opportunity and hopefully I can replicate what Agassi achieved when he won the gold medal. Right now I feel totally fine, physically and mentally. I'm not fatigued at all. When I get to Beijing I'm sure I'll be a little bit tired with the jetlag but you get over it by playing in such a huge competition.

"Everyone who goes to the Olympics dreams of getting some sort of medal, gold would be the best, but just to get on the podium would be great."

Any lingering theories that Murray will not devote all his energies to the Olympics with the US Open on the horizon are dispelled by his decision to also play in the men's doubles with Jamie, his brother.

"We've got a decent chance. When it comes to the Olympics a lot of the best teams in the world get split up, for example, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, are the best in the world but can't play together.

"Me and Jamie have played a reasonable amount of time and a lot of the guys won't have done that. Behind the seeds we'll be dark horses and there's no reason why we can't get close to winning a medal."

Via brief stops in London and Helsinki, Murray will transfer from the steamy humidity of America's Midwest to the smoggy intensity of industrial China. He admits to not taking extra precautions ahead of travelling to Beijing, preferring to learn and adapt as he goes along.

"The humidity this week in Cincinnati was unbelievable.

They aren't conditions you want to play in every week as you can lose quite a bit of weight playing long matches in those conditions. You just have to do what you can with the heat and try to deal with it as best as you can.

"Some of the athletes did breath-testing ahead of the Olympics and you can use inhalers to help but I didn't take that as I didn't feel it was that necessary. I have never played anywhere where the air quality was that bad. I will just have to see what it's like when I get there."

Murray's victory over Djokovic in Cincinnati, his second defeat of the Serb in the space of a week, represented another crack in tennis' glass ceiling. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Djokovic have long been installed as the three finest players in the world but Murray believes he is closing the gap little by little.

"They are still a long way ahead. But if I keep improving my clay court game so I don't fall too far behind them in that part of the year and improve my grand slam record then there's no reason why I can't get close to them.

"It will take a lot of hard work and you have to be very consistent to reach the level they're at now as each week they are making quarter-finals or semi-finals. But I'm closer today than I was yesterday and that's all you can do."