ANDY Murray has set his sights on completing the full set of the sport's major honours now he has the Davis Cup tucked safely away in his tennis bag. The Scot will conclude his season as World No 2 with an exhibition event in the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, fitting in a short break before building up again to the Australian Open in January.
While the onerous task of securing victory in Melbourne and at Roland Garros would provide him with the twoGrand Slam titles he requires to complete a remarkable resume, the onset of an Olympic year is also something to focus the mind. Murray has an Olympic singles title to defend, and will hope to improve on his men's doubles performance from London 2012, when he and his brother Jamie crashed out in the opening round to Jurgen Melzer and Alexander Peya.
The Scot has cleared his schedule for the month of February, when his wife Kim is set to give birth to his first child, but for now at least plans to remain part of the Great Britain squad for their 2016 Davis Cup opener against Kei Nishikori's Japan at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham in early March. Any potential quarter final tie would be considerably more problematic, though, as it comes immediately after Wimbledon with the Olympics looming on the horizon.
"The Australian Open, obviously, I’ve been very close there a number of years," said the 28-year-old ahead of a tournament which he will enter as No 2 seed, and will thus steer clear of Novak Djokovic until the final. "I haven’t won there but I think I’ve often played my best tennis there. I really like the conditions, the courts. That’s obviously my next big goal, something to work towards. I will try my best to win all of the Grand Slams, there’s no doubt about that. Whether I am able to do it or not I’m not sure but I’ll try as hard as I can to get there. The Australian Open is only, what, eight weeks away. It’s going to come around quickly so I’ll get a break now for 10 days or so then get back on it and get ready for that."
Andy's pre-Australia training block will see him renew acquaintances with coach Amelie Mauresmo, after her four-month absence on maternity leave following the birth of her first son Aaron in August. While her responsibilities have fallen to Jonas Bjorkman, the Swede and the Frenchwoman will essentially job share as his lead coach going forward. "I haven’t seen Amelie for four months or so," he said. "I have made some improvements this year but I still have some stuff to work on if I want to go higher in the rankings and if I want to win in Australia and compete for the Slams.
"As for the Davis Cup, the plan is to play in March, although I don't know what is going to happen with Kim and the birth yet so I can't say 100% for certain," added Andy, who also had some choice criticisms of the LTA yesterday. "But if everything goes to plan then the Davis Cup in March against Japan will be my first tournament [since becoming a dad]. Next year, if we were to win the first round, the quarter final comes at a very tricky time, with the Olympics as well. So that will be something that we will need to talk about but I will definitely be playing in the first match provided everything goes well with Kim."
While captain Leon Smith also seems likely to remain in post for that tie, everything is up in the air as interim LTA performance director Peter Keen, formerly of British Cycling, prepares to deliver the latest blueprint to take tennis forward. The Glaswegian has previously been involved in talks about a secondment to head up Tennis Scotland's performance department, while the likes of Kyle Edmund are currently without a coach. “I’ve always said I would quite like to do that [work as a coach on the tour] at some point," said Smith. "I like what I do just now but I certainly can’t keep doing that for ever."
Jamie Murray admitted that the authorities north and south of the border need to find the right way to make use of Smith's expertise. "Leon’s obviously proved that he’s a great coach, a great leader as well," said Jamie. "It would be stupid not to want to have him on board and taking British tennis forward.”
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