WHEN Andy Murray was eight years old his technique "wasn't fantastic" but he was already telling his tennis coach Toby Smith, pictured, he would become a world beater.
However, the innate confidence Murray displayed has perhaps made the climb to the very top all the more precarious, his former coach has said.
"Andy always knew he was a terrific player," said Tennis Scotland coach Smith, brother of Davis Cup captain Leon. "He'd come down to the David Lloyd Club in Renfrew and hit with the older players on Saturday afternoons just to get experience, but there was never any doubt in my mind he would make it. Or his.
"At the time, his technique wasn't fantastic but he showed an incredible tactical awareness. He has a brilliant tennis mind and knew instinctively the shots to play, how to make others play badly. He knew how to probe for a weakness and he would find it."
Yet Smith, now coaching the Scottish stars of the future such as 14-year-old European champion Maia Lumsden, said Murray's confidence has at times been his undoing.
"Andy can go into matches thinking it can be too easy, that he can beat anyone, apart from two or three guys in the world. And that's because he knows how to beat his opponents. And he can lose focus. In Australia this year for example he lost a set because he'd switched off."
Smiling, the coach added: "Sometimes the business of tennis has been too boring for Andy. Aged nine he went on to be coached by my brother, Leon, and one of the biggest challenges Leon had was to keep Andy interested, to stimulate him. During their sessions Leon had to invent new tennis games to play, such as hitting the 'goal posts', creating points challenges, just to get the job done."
Part of that mentality has stayed with him. "The Russians will go out and hit thousands of balls over a net without thinking. But that's not Andy. He likes to play the game in his mind. But he's realised now he has to go head-to-head with his opponent for a full match or he won't win a Grand Slam."
So Murray is more focused. But Smith also stresses how much physical work Murray has put into becoming world number one. "I've been talking to Jamie Baker recently, who had a great match himself at Wimbledon with Andy Roddick, and Jamie told me about training with Andy in December.
"Jamie, who's one of the hardest working players in the game, says he had to re-educate himself about how to play. The reason was Andy's training regimes were way tougher than he could imagine. He said it was Iron Man stuff. So much so that after training with Andy, Jamie broke into the world top 200 [186] and he reckons he can make the top 100."
Smith doesn't subscribe to the theory Judy Murray should abandon her son to his own devices. "Judy's been great for Andy," he said. "She's a terrific coach. But the key thing is the relationship does work at a tennis level. And here's the thing, Ivan Lendl isn't just tough, he's brutal. He brings his on-court will to win into his coaching. He's the Daddy. And if he felt Judy to be in the way at all he'd be saying 'Jog on.'"
But has Lendl imposed a new toughness, a need for Murray to attack opponents from the start, think less about probing for weakness?
"I think Lendl has helped in this. But tennis is all about the balance. Andy still sees the game as a tactical challenge, and not simply about battering the ball. However, as he showed in the final stages of the Ferrer match, when he's focused he can destroy."
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