A LOT has changed for Andy Murray in the past 12 months, from a couple of big additions to his trophy cabinet to his ascent to the world No 1 spot.

But as he finalised preparations for the start of his title bid here tomorrow, Murray revealed that another addition had had a far bigger effect on his career than he had ever imagined.

Murray’s daughter Sophia has accompanied him to Australia, together with his wife, Kim, offering the 29-year-old home comforts as he tries for his fourth Grand Slam title.

“I certainly didn’t expect to be in the position I am now,” said a relaxed Murray, who is the top seed at a Grand Slam for the first time.

“Becoming a parent, I did expect that to be life-changing, from what everyone had told me. Obviously you never know until it happens to you, but I did expect it to be pretty big, and it has had a big impact on my career. I certainly didn’t expect to be coming back as world No 1 this year.”

It is all a far cry from events last year, when Murray was torn between his title attempt and what was happening back home.

Between matches down under 12 months ago, Murray was anxiously checking on the welfare of Kim, who was heavily pregnant and was due to give birth any day.

Then, while Murray was playing, his father-in-law Nigel Sears, then the coach of Ana Ivanovic, suffered a serious health scare at Melbourne Park, an incident which saw Murray rush to his hospital bedside.

Thankfully, Sears recovered quickly and Kim held on until Murray returned home, but the distractions clearly affected the Scot, who did well to reach the final, where he was beaten in straight sets by his old nemesis Novak Djokovic.

“It was a tough tournament,” he admitted. “Obviously the situation with Kim and the baby coming was tough. Then, with what happened with Nigel, kind of during the event, made it really kind of awkward, because there were times where I was thinking – I want to go home. But then also my father-in-law was here and in hospital.

“It was, like, I want to be at home for the birth, but then I’m not just going to sort of leave whilst my father-in-law is also in hospital.

“Yeah, it was tough, and certainly not a position I would want to put myself in again, or my wife, or any of my family really.”

Murray has said many times that becoming a father has added more perspective, reducing the impact of painful losses and adding to the satisfaction in tough wins.

A study by Tennis Australia’s Game Insight Group this week established, if we didn’t already know, that Murray is the hardest worker in men’s tennis, in terms of the amount of effort put in on every point.

Murray’s performances in the second half of 2016 brought him a second Wimbledon title, second Olympic gold medal, a first ATP Tour Finals title and the No 1 ranking for the first time.

The Scot needs to reach the semi-finals here to be guaranteed of keeping the No 1 ranking, but whatever happens, he is determined not to rest on his laurels.

“I think it is a mindset thing, because I think it could be quite easy that once you get to No 1 that you think, well, actually, I just need to keep doing what I doing,” Murray said.

“The reality is, in sport, that things obviously keep moving on, the game will get better, I’ll obviously get older, the young guys will continue to improve, and also Novak and Roger (Federer) and Stan (Wawrinka) and Rafa (Nadal) and all the guys at the top are still going to want to get there.

“So that’s why having someone like Ivan [Lendl] on my team who has been in that position before and knows what that’s like has been important. I need to continue to improve. I for sure need to keep working hard.

“I don’t think necessarily working harder than I have in the past, but just having the mindset that I need to keep getting better and try to improve my game and any weaknesses in my game, to try to get rid of them.”

Murray’s 28-match winning streak came to an end when he was beaten by Djokovic in Doha last week.

The world No 1 will play Illya Marchenko of Ukraine in the first round and could face a fit-again Federer or fifth seed Kei Nishikori in the last eight. But whatever obstacles are put in his path, Murray looks and sounds in the frame of mind to overcome them.

“I obviously feel pretty confident after the way last season finished,” he said.

“I do love it here. I love the conditions. I have played really well here over the years, and just haven’t managed to obviously get over the final hurdle.

“But I’m in a decent position, for sure, to do it. I think I have a chance to win here. Obviously nothing’s guaranteed. But, yeah, why not? I’m playing well. Practice has been good. I feel healthy. I’ll give it a good shot.”

Host broadcaster Channel 7 says it is going to announce the new world No 1 as Sir Andy Murray, after his recent knighthood, but Murray said he wanted to keep things simple.

“I’m more than happy just being Andy,” he said. “That’s enough for me. If they call me Andy, that’s cool, I’d be happy with that.”