YOU may not necessarily have heard of Brian Baker, a 33-year-old American tennis player from Nashville. He reached a career high ranking of World No 52 and is perhaps best known on this side of the pond for a storming run which saw him reach the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2012. But when I tell you that his name is occasionally bracketed with the nickname ‘Bionic’ then you perhaps start to understand his relevance to Andy Murray and the events which have been unfolding out in Australia this week.

Lord knows the World No 1 has been going through the emotional wringer out there, shocking the world’s media with the dreaded news that he plans to retire after Wimbledon this year, if his body even allows him to get that far. Going in for a hip resurfacing immediately after the Aussie Open, which would likely take him out of contention for SW19 altogether this year, is another option.

While no two set of case notes are the same, few in tennis or better qualified to appreciate what Murray is going through right now than Baker, a man whose medical history is lengthier than War and Peace. When the Herald on Sunday caught up with him this week, he was back home in Tennessee, undergoing an MRI scan as he rehabs from the 14th surgery of his career, a back operation this time. While he has kept his protected ATP ranking just in case, his main priority is getting himself fit to fulfil some newly acquired coaching responsibilities with the USTA.

But what makes the Baker story particularly remarkable is the fact that, aside from some early flashes of promise on the Challenger Tour and a break-out first round win over then World No 9 Gaston Gaudio at the 2005 US Open, all of Baker’s best results have been achieved AFTER the three procedures which saw both his left and right hips resurfaced before he underwent a further surgery on his left hip to repair the labrum.

Ironically, it was during his only career meeting with Murray, a straight-sets defeat at a Binghampton Challenger in 2005, that Baker started complaining of problems with his hips. When he complained to a doctor in the immediate afterglow of that Gaudio win, the prognosis wasn’t good. “He flat out said I did not have the hips to play professional tennis,” recalls Baker. “What a buzz kill. It was definitely not something you want to hear. But looking back they were probably true words.”

Those issues eventually provoked the first of two lengthy lay-offs in Baker’s career, the man once imagined as the next Andy Roddick taking a job as a tennis coach at Belmont University and keeping his eye in during club tennis matches with his family. Having returned triumphantly to the tour in 2011 and 2012 everything was going so well until he suffered a serious knee problem this time - whist leading Sam Querrey in an Australian Open match in early 2013. "While it was good enough for me to get out and play it was always putting pressure on other parts of my body," he admits.

No wonder the 33-year-old has been an interested observer in the Andy Murray story this week. While his tale proves that even the most invasive hip surgeries can be recovered from, the difference may reside in the fact that Baker always had something to prove to himself. By contrast Murray, with three Grand Slams, two Olympic golds and the World No 1 under his belt, has already done pretty much everything there is to do.

“It is a sad day when any of the top guys, especially Andy who is such a good guy on tour, decides that his body is not co-operating enough,” said Baker. “But it makes sense when you have been at his level, winning three slams, two Wimbledons, and have been No 1 in the world, that your expectations are to be elite. If you don’t feel like you can’t get back to the top it is probably not worth it for him to do that.

“I know he loves the game but if he is not enjoying the training enough to do it the way he wants to do it, then you have to retire,” he added. “You either have to play with limitations and some pain or you retire, I think he has chosen the latter just because of what he has been used to in the past.

“I was always realistic,” he added. “There were definitely a few times when I thought it might not happen, that I might not be able to get back. I always wanted to go out on my own terms, not have my last match some match be some match where I had to pull out or I got injured.

“I was a little bit younger than Andy when I came back but my joints were probably a little bit older than my age! I was okay playing with some limitations and some pain because I wanted to prove that I could go out there and have a good career. But I was never No 1 in the world or competing for slams like Andy did. If I had already won Grand Slams and accomplished a lot of things that I wanted to accomplish, I am not sure I would have been going back. It wasn’t like every match I was feeling terrible, but I couldn’t play or train the way I wanted to. I was happy just getting out there at the best level I could.”

Being physically back to your best is just one part of the battle, the other part is getting the mental confidence that you will be able to mix it with the best again. “Me and Andy know each other and have met each other over the years, although we were never super close,” said Baker. “I am a couple of years older than him and when we played at Binghampton honestly it was the very day my hip started hurting. That was the first week that I knew something was going on, just a couple of weeks before the US Open and my win over Gaudio.

“A lot of people under-estimate the mental toll it takes. It is tough getting back to be 100% physically but then even when you are back physically it takes longer than that to have the mental confidence that you are 100%. The other thing is: can you get your game back?

“When you were at the level he was at, when you are No 1 in the world, you can’t have any weaknesses really. It isn’t enough just to be one of the best ball strikers in the world, you have to also be one of the best movers and that is why Andy was so good.”

What advice would Baker give the Scot as he navigates what appears likely to be his last season on tour, starting with Roberto Bautista-Agut in the Australian Open first round. “He just has to listen to his body,” said Baker. “It is probably not a hasty decision, something that he just thought of a day ago and thought ‘this is what I am going to do’.

“He just needs to play the tournament, listen to his body and listen to the doctors and if your heart isn’t in it – or you know your body simply isn’t going to do it – it probably makes that decision a bit easier. Not any happier, it is still a sad decision. If he is willing to risk some long-term issues down the road, then maybe he could go for a resurface and eventually try to return but it is hard to give great advice.

“I would just say if you want to keep playing keep pushing and exhaust every opportunity. But if not he has already had a great career and is able to do anything in tennis or his life he wants to afterwards. I am sure he would much rather go out at Wimbledon than any other place and I bet he tries as hard as he can to get through five months just to get it to Wimbledon.”

*Follow Brian Baker on www.tennistakes.com