THE conditions could hardly be less Antipodean as Judy Murray spares me an hour of her precious time at a coffee shop in Dunblane. The gale-force winds and icy chill are a world away from temperatures at Melbourne Park, which regularly exceed 40 degrees celsius and caused her son Jamie to collapse with heat exhaustion after one match in 2014.

In fact, the first Grand Slam of the year is her favourite tournament, the “chilled out” atmosphere on the other side of the globe a pleasant alternative to the annual stress-fest that is Wimbledon. If history is any guide, her two sons have a fair chance of advancing in Australia, but just perhaps there is a little more pressure than usual weighing on their shoulders this time. Both are top of the world as they arrive down under.

For all the unease he feels about being introduced as Sir Andy, in every other way picking up a title – heraldic or otherwise – was an appropriate way for Andy Murray to end 2016. In the 12 months since they last competed at the Australian Open, he and his brother Jamie – who was awarded an OBE last year – have done little else but rack up major honours.

Whatever predictions were being made for these two extraordinary Scottish siblings at the start of 2016, they comfortably surpassed them, and both arrive in Melbourne this week as the best the world has to offer in their chosen professions.

Andy went into this event last year fearing he would either be unable to complete the schedule or miss the birth of his first child Sophia. But he took such domestic matters in his stride and would go on to secure a second Wimbledon crown, then overhaul the relentless Novak Djokovic to become world No 1 for the first time.

Jamie, meanwhile, arrives in Australia as defending doubles champion, one of two Grand Slam titles he and the other half of the world’s best doubles pairing, Bruno Soares, have in their possession.

The temptation to take the foot off the gas and reflect upon the grandeur of their achievements is obvious. But don’t expect it to happen any time soon. Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald, Judy Murray said both her children were more motivated than ever as 2017 begins – even though they have now become the hunted.

“It is a new experience for them, isn’t it?” said Judy. “Another thing they have to deal with. Andy is going in as No 1, which he has never done before although he has a good record at the Australian Open. The courts, the weather and everything seems to suit him there.

“It is actually a very chilled tournament, the most chilled of them all. It is my favourite tournament. But there is an added pressure there of being No 1 and it is the same for Jamie. He is defending a Grand Slam for the first time and it is very easy to get caught up thinking ‘I am defending 2000 points and what will happen to my ranking if I lose them’.

“You have to park all that, say ‘I am here to win’ and forget everything else. You never know what will happen, you just have to make the most of what you have and take your chances while you have got them. But I know he and Jamie are more motivated than ever.

“Andy has always loved doing the work but you can see him working even harder now he has had the baby. His resilience is incredible. Jamie, especially over the last four years, has been working a lot harder, investing in himself and spending a lot of money because the doubles guys don’t get as much.”

AS satisfying as it must be to watch your progeny turn out to be such high achievers and remain remarkably grounded despite it all, what really brings a smile to Judy’s face is seeing the effect their performances have on others. In particular, she delights in seeing the lease of life their achievements have provided to her parents Roy and Shirley Erskine, both of whom are in their 80s, and both of whom are entitled to take their share of the credit.

“It is lovely,” said Judy. “My parents, they are 82 and 86 now but they came to Wimbledon this year and they came to the Davis Cups. They are so hugely excited and proud of the whole thing and it is lovely for me to see that in them. They are both sporty, and both incredibly proud of the boys, but it has given them a huge lease of life. There is always something for them to look forward to, always something for them to talk about at the golf course or the hairdressers.

“My dad claims he invented topspin. And my mum thinks it is all down to her. She says ‘if I hadn’t gone to the Beacon [boarding school in Stirling], I wouldn’t have met your dad, we wouldn’t have had you, so we wouldn’t have had the boys. So it is all down to me really’.”

Judy has plenty of her own goals to focus on. While a memoir of sorts will be published this year, her life’s work could loosely be defined as a one-woman mission to turn tennis from an afterthought into the mainstream of Scottish sport.

While her sons’ achievements have given that project a shot in the arm, there is still work to be done. While she enthusiastically coaches the coaches of the future through her Tennis on the Road and Miss Hits schemes, all has gone quiet as Scottish ministers consider the viability of her bespoke tennis and golf academy on the Park of Keir site near Dunblane.

As encouraged as she is by developments at Tennis Scotland since the arrival of Blane Dodds as chairman, with the governing body recently securing £15 million in funding from the LTA and sportscotland (with no little thanks to a concerted Murray media campaign), it only makes it more crucial that they secure a dynamic chief executive to make that money go further. And no, at the age of 57, that person isn’t her. “I can’t think of anything I would like to do less,” she says.

Is it really five years since one of Andy’s post-match press conferences en route to his US Open win was memorably hijacked by Sir Sean Connery and Sir Alex Ferguson? Judy, who accompanied those two Scottish knights of the realm into the press room that day, laughs at the suggestion her kith and kin may have supplanted even them as Scotland’s favourite sons.

She is certainly grateful to the Scottish public for the ever-increasing lengths they are prepared to go to lend their support to her and her children and that is why the family are determined to give something back through events like the annual “Andy Murray Live” event for charity at the SSE Hydro. Judy is non-committal about suggestions Roger Federer will appear at the 2017 version, but “something special” is definitely in the pipeline.

“The Far East is the place where you get the die-hard fans, people waiting outside hotels until 3am,” she said. “And they make you things like soft toys or pictures and cards.

“That [the difference between Scotland and Great Britain] might not come into it so much but wherever Andy plays, you always see Scottish flags and you can always hear Scottish voices. Stuff like ‘on yersel son’. When he was in Paris playing against [John] Isner there was a guy with a pink Scotland top, kilt, a Jimmy wig and everything. He was obviously well-oiled before he got there but he was standing up, giving it Flower of Scotland, throughout the whole match.

“The support from Scotland has always been phenomenal, but I’ve noticed the number of Scottish people who go growing over the last few years, since maybe 2012 onwards, or when Andy won Wimbledon. I understand how difficult it is to get tickets for Wimbledon, especially if you are not a member of a tennis club. It is a very, very hard thing to do. But the efforts people go to to get down, queue up and try to get in; they might be happy just to sit on the hill, it really is incredible.

“They have had the bonus of the home Davis Cup ties too, and I know people travel from down south to them, but it shows the appetite for tennis is huge. It only makes me more disappointed more hasn’t been done to secure the strength of tennis in the country longer term.”