Boris Becker expects Andy Murray to return to the tennis circuit with a renewed hunger after his enforced break from the sport.
The Scot had minor surgery on his troublesome back a month ago and last week confirmed his season was over when he withdrew from the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
News from the Murray camp has nevertheless been encouraging and in around a month's time the Scot will travel to Miami to begin his winter training camp as he builds up to the new season.
The nature of the tennis calendar means breaks are usually no more than a few days, even at the end of a season.
Murray had a short holiday after winning Wimbledon but it became clear during his US Open title defence, which ended with a quarter-final loss to Stanislas Wawrinka, that he was physically and mentally jaded.
As well as his recuperation, this period has allowed Murray time out to recharge his batteries, and the effect of that will be seen at the Australian Open in January.
Rafael Nadal has shown with his phenomenal season that great things can happen after a lengthy break, and Becker believes that can be an inspiration to Murray.
The former world number one said: "We don't know the extent of the injury and back surgery is never a good thing.
"The Australian Open will be his target and I trust what he says. He's got another two and a half months to get ready and I think he'll do it.
"He has been on a bit of a treadmill, from reaching the Wimbledon final last year then the Olympics, winning the US Open, an Australian Open final through to winning Wimbledon.
"If you are forced to take time out you can really appreciate what you have done and enjoy it a little bit. It does make you more hungry, you realise how much you love the sport.
"And the incredible way that Nadal has come back this year, that can be a good example for Andy."
While Murray concentrates on getting back to full fitness, the off-season tasks for British women's number one Laura Robson will include finding a new coach.
The 19-year-old split from Miles Maclagan this week after only four months having previously been with Croatian Zeljko Krajan for less than a year.
Robson has changed coaches frequently during her short career in search of the right person to help her realise her potential.
This year has been up and down, with more good performances at the grand slams but a failure to replicate that form on the WTA Tour.
From a high of 27 in the rankings after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, Robson has dropped to 46 as a consequence of disappointing results in Asia.
That is only seven places higher than she started the season, and Becker said: "Her year wasn't as good as I expected it to be.
"She's had problems with injury and illness and that's probably a reason. Often it's not the coach's fault but you have to make somebody responsible.
"Ideally you want to be together with a coach for a couple of years at least. She's a very talented young player. She has got work to do, she needs to work physically a little bit more, but I expect her to come good."
There are a few likely candidates to replace Maclagan, including Maria Sharapova's former coach, Thomas Hogstedt, and Swede Sven Groeneveld, who spotted Robson's potential when she was 11 and has helped her on and off over the past few years through his role with adidas.
"Sven is a very good coach, I know him from my playing days," said Becker. "And so is Thomas Hogstedt. He's very knowledgeable and a fun guy."
In December, Becker will be speaking at Doha GOALS, which is the world's premier platform for world leaders to create initiatives for global progress through sport.
The German said: "I believe sport has the power to change the world. It has changed my life for the better. I'm passionate about the lessons kids can learn from playing sport."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article