"THIS is my home"

THE world of professional sport is never strictly business. There is always room for emotion.

Andy Murray not only accepts this, he embraces it. He talked of anticipation and apprehension in an Emirates Arena that last night echoed to last-minute construction for a sporting stage that will host 7700 passionate fans on each of three days of the world group tie with the USA.

He is aware that his homecoming has the capacity to be enthralling not only for the crowd but for himself. This is a team event but Murray is the star, however hard he tries to downplay a role that has been thrust upon him.

The 27-year-old brushed off questions over his motivation as a Yes Scotland supporter playing for Team GB before addressing briskly other matters. His answers were short but revealing.

Asked if this felt like home, he replied: "This is home. This is where I grew up, this is where my family live. Except for me and my brother they virtually all still live in Dunblane. I still have very strong ties to Dunblane for a number of reasons."

Murray is a closet Glaswegian, born in the city, but he is welded to Dunblane by ties that owed something to family but more to a past that includes the joyful and the frankly dreadful. Much of this is unspoken but it is deeply felt. There is a bond between Murray and his countrymen that nods in respect to his dignity in the wake of the awful horror he wasparty to on a benighted day in 1996.

Murray has won Wimbledon, Olympic gold, the US Open and countless other tournaments. But he is more than a sportsman, he is a survivor. It is why any return of his to Scotland carries a weight that cannot be measured in sporting terms. He is the third best player in the world. He is also a Scottish hero of a recognisable type: passionate, talented and ever so slightly lachrymose.

It is why it is no surprise that Murray visited Hampden, once the theatre of sporting dreams, this week.

He walked through the dressing-rooms, the warm-up areas and on the pitch on a winter's evening. He had only been at Hampden once before. It had not been particularly pleasant. It rarely is for a Hibernian fan.

It was a cup final and Hibs lost. "Surprise," said Murray with his trademark dry humour.

The football theme was extended when Jamie Ward, his team mate, presented him with what is known with a hospital pass, remarking that it was expected that Murray would win two points in the singles. "No pressure then," said the double grand slam winner under his breath.

The background story to the tie is that the atmosphere will be loud, raucous and intimidating for the Americans. It will also be hugely supportive of Murray and his team mates.

Andy and Jamie are expected to play against the Bryan brothers in the pivotal doubles match on Saturday.

"We haven't played loads in Davis Cup together but we played the Olympics twice and I played with him on tour a bunch," said Andy of his pairings with Jamie.

It is possible that Leon Smith, the team captain, could pick Dominic Inglot in the doubles but it is likely that it is brothers versus brothers in a match that could decide the destiny of the tie.

Murray will be a strong favourite to beat John Isner and Donald Young in the singles rubbers while Ward has only an outside chance of bringing in a point.

It is why the emotion for Murray will be cleared almost immediately after he walks on to court tomorrow. This return to Scotland is important personally to the Scot. But he knows that progress in the Davis Cup is a deeply serious business.

He has, too, the opportunity not only to play in front of his countrymen but to inspire a generation some of whom may yet pick up racket rather than kick a ball.

Murray has faced pressure throughout his career and is becoming comfortable with the strain it imparts. He expects to be nervous.

"I have always viewed nerves as a very positive thing. I think when you actually learn what nerves are you realise it is positive to feel nervous. I have always felt I have performed better when I have had nerves in the morning or the night before.

"I felt I have been able to concentrate better and I feel my body responds well; I move better and I respond better when I am nervous. It is about making sure you make the right decisions in those moments. I hope I will deal with it well on Friday but who knows?"

The odds are short that he will. They are shorter that he will be greeted with the tennis equivalent of the Hampden Roar.