Andy Murray: Lonely this Christmas

Published on Saturday 7 November 2009 20:29

SO HOW does a 22-year-old multi-millionaire spend Christmas? Does he lavish Ferraris and Maseratis on his nearest and dearest, quaff vintage champagne and nibble beluga caviare from a silver spoon? Er, no. Not if he is Andy Murray.

Scotland's finest will spend the festive season on his tod, training in Miami. While the rest of his family gather in Dunblane to devour turkey with all the trimmings, Murray may give himself a day off and, if he is lucky, he may find a pal to take him on Christmas Day itself. On the other hand, he may just stay at home. Alone.

It all sounds a little grim and depressing but as he made his comeback from a six-week injury break at the Valencia Open, he was already looking forward to the hard work and training to come. It is all part of Murray's grand plan to win the Australian Open which starts on 18 January. When the new season dawns in January, Murray intends to be as fit as he can possibly be and to be fully acclimatised to the blistering heat of the Australian summer.

"I am looking forward to getting to Australia early and making sure I'm over the jet lag and fully ready," he said. "What I did before, going to Doha in the first week of the year, you play every match at night and it's cold. I was coming back from Miami and going to Scotland for a few days over Christmas. I was spending three or four weeks training in the heat, then coming back to Scotland, it's cold; go to Doha, it's cold; and you go to Australia and you've got basically five days to get used to the heat again. I think this way will work much better. I am going to spend Christmas in the States then go straight over to Australia."

In Florida, the rackets will be abandoned as Murray, Ross Hutchins, Miles Maclagan, Alex Corretja, Matt Little and Jez Green hit the gym and the running track. Then, as his friends and colleagues go their separate ways for Christmas, Murray will go to Perth for the Hopman Cup where he will partner Laura Robson in the team event at the start of January. Robson is one of Murray's new stable mates at Adidas, which has just signed the Scot in a deal reportedly worth up to 15 million over the next five years. Thanks to the round-robin format in Perth, Murray is guaranteed to play three singles matches but also, somewhat alarmingly for him, he will play three mixed doubles matches with Robson. And to make sure he makes a good initial impression, he will ask for a few tips from his brother, Jamie, on the art of mixed doubles.

"The Hopman Cup should be fun," Murray said. "I've played mixed a couple of times and I'm not very good at it. There's a certain way of playing and my brother's very good at it so I'll ask for some tips from him. Hopefully it'll be good for Laura as well, a nice learning experience. I haven't spent really that much time with her but I know her reasonably well and she's pretty mature for her age so it'll be good to get to know her a little bit and hopefully we'll do well."

He will have more than enough time to pick Jamie's brains as the two slog around the track in Miami when Jamie joins his little brother for off-season training. It is the first time he has joined the rest of the Murray gang for the weeks of graft and Jamie's renewed appetite for hard work has impressed his brother. After picking up his fourth Challenger title in three months – together with Jonny Marray, Jamie won the Kazakhstan event on Friday – he is steadily climbing the doubles rankings again after a difficult year.

"He went off the boil a bit in the first six or seven months of the year," Andy explained. "But it's amazing, when you start putting the work in, what happens to the results. He's going to train with me in Miami at the end of the year for the first time, and I think he's got his focus back.

"He kind of realised that when he started to drop down the rankings that he needed to be more serious to get back up there. It's that sort of dedication – to go to Kazakhstan for a week to play a tournament and then come back, it's a long way. But he's back around the top 100 and I think he'll get ranked higher again."

As both Murray brothers prepare to work themselves narrow in the coming weeks, Andy is more than willing to pay the price of missing Christmas and Hogmanay with his family if by Burns Night he is half way towards winning his first grand slam title.