Andy Murray is up against it in his bid to make the ATP World Tour Finals, lying 9th in the ‘Race to London’ standings. The Scot has had an indifferent year by his standards, with his only title of the year so far coming at the relatively low-profile Shenzhen event a fortnight ago, beating Tommy Robredo in the final and saving five match points in the process. Despite such a morale-boosting victory, he will definitely need to up his performance levels when he comes up against more high-quality fields in the coming weeks. Only Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have qualified so far for the season finale, with Australian Open Champion Stanislas Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori likely to follow suit imminently. Just behind them are US Open Champion Marin Cilic and Czech Tomas Berdych, with Milos Raonic occupying the eighth and final spot. Should any of these players slip up, then Murray, David Ferrer and Grigor Dimitrov will be ready to pounce.
While Murray has not hit the heights of previous years, he has not done badly at all. It was always going to be difficult to match the 12 months he enjoyed between the summers of 2012 and 2013, when he notched up the Olympic, US Open and Wimbledon titles. However, he then suffered from a back injury which required surgery and has openly admitted to not feeling the same level of drive following victory at his home Slam. Despite a so-called ‘poor’ season, he still managed to achieve three quarter-final finishes and one semi-final appearance in the Majors. However, given that a number of upcoming talents have managed to break the dominance of the ‘big four’, it has left him with a real fight on his hands. Players like Raonic, Cilic, Dimitrov and Nishikori have all made great strides in the last year, and will have gained considerable confidence from the make-up of the final at Flushing Meadows; two players making their debuts on the biggest stage of all having outclassed Djokovic and Federer to get there. Cilic has spoken about how Wawrinka’s win in Melbourne invigorated him, and made him realise that the title of ‘Grand Slam Champion’ is not a closed shop; belief matters just as much as hard work and athleticism.
Due to this fierce competition, Murray has had to add more tournaments to his schedule, in order to accrue enough ranking points. He goes to Vienna this week, where his greatest challenges will come in the form of Spaniards David Ferrer (who just knocked Murray out of the Shanghai Masters 1000 event) and Feliciano Lopez, who reached the semi-finals having beaten Rafael Nadal at the same tournament. At the same time, in Stockholm, Dimitrov and Berdych will be competing for honours, going up against other talented players like the big-serving Kevin Anderson and the unpredictable Gael Monfils. Across Europe, Raonic and Cilic will be vying for the crown in Moscow.
After this, Murray heads the Masters 500 event in Valencia, where he will hope to exact revenge on Ferrer and close the gap on Cilic, Nishikori and Berdych in the race to next month’s extravaganza. At the same time in Basel, Federer will turn out in front of an adoring home crowd, where he is the five-time Champion at the event. However, on the past two occasions, he has been thwarted by Juan Martin del Potro, who has been beset by injury problems, but has returned recently to competition and will face him again this time around. World No.3 Nadal will also be competing in a high-quality field, which will also include Wawrinka and fellow hotshots Dimitrov and Raonic.
The last major tournament before London will be the Masters 1000 event in Paris, where, once again, many of the world’s elite will converge on the French capital. Murray will hope by this point that not all hope is lost as he plays his sixth tournament in as many weeks. The only three to have qualified so far will all be there, along with Wawrinka, Ferrer, Nishikori, Berdych and many others. In the last four years, the trophy has been won by a different player each time, so who will come out on top this time is anyone’s guess.
There is so much to play for between now and November 9. If Murray can rediscover his magic touch, he will almost certainly feature at the season-ending party for the sixth time.
Alex Bowmer
Cover image: USA Today