With the likely exception of the whopping appearance fee he is pocketing for choosing Munich as the place to begin his clay-court season this week, Andy Murray will also be relieved that a certain Novak Djokovic has not made a similar decision.

Murray, who begins his quest for a first clay title at the BMW Open against Germany's Mischa Zverev of Germany, has been Djokovic's nearest challenger in 2015, pushing him to two finals at the Australian Open and in Miami.

But the manner in which Djokovic won both titles, pulling away in the closing stages, left Murray feeling physically second-best and as he prepared for his opener in Munich, he wondered aloud what he could do to close the gap.

"In the matches that I lost to him at the Australian Open and Miami I felt like my level was there but there were a couple of things that obviously weren't," he said. "The way the matches finished was not the way that I would have liked them to finish.

"Physically he's incredibly strong. I think I work hard. I try to do as much as I can. But there's a balance. If you try to go too far you can hurt yourself.

"I'm doing the best that I can to try to keep up there physically and I feel like my game this year has been a lot closer than it was for all of last year, so that's a positive that I would take out of those matches.

"But on a hard court he's been very, very difficult to beat over the last seven or eight months."

When Rafa Nadal was in his absolute pomp, just a few years ago, players would go onto court knowing that physically they could not compete.

Now, Djokovic has taken on that mantle and not just on hard courts but also on clay, winning the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo to extend his huge lead at the top of the rankings.

Murray beat Djokovic to win both the US Open and Wimbledon titles, of course, so it's not as if he does not know how to do it; simply that Djokovic appears to have gone up a level, winning their past six encounters and nine of the past 10.

"Novak has been playing extremely good tennis, he's very confident," Murray said. "He moves very, very well, especially on hard courts. I think that gives him a lot of confidence in his game. When he's moving well it's difficult to finish points against him."

Murray may be better on hard courts and grass but he is no mug on clay, reaching the semi-finals of the French Open twice, running into Nadal each time.

With the Spaniard struggling for top form and low on confidence after injury, Murray said Djokovic is favourite for Roland Garros but that he expects Nadal to recover top form.

"I think he'll get back to where he wants to be in the next couple of months," Murray said.

Murray, who partnered Jean-Julien Rojer to first-round success in the doubles yesterday, said he felt in better shape than in the past couple of years as he begins a clay-court campaign that will take in Madrid and Rome before the big one in Paris.

The Scot has never made it to a final on clay but as the top seed in a relatively weak event, this could be the week.

"I'd like to try to win a clay-court event," he said. "A lot of the times when I have played well on the clay I've lost to Rafa and to Novak. So I'm hoping I can have a good run."