Murray sees Tour Finals as ideal Slam preparation

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 22:53

ANDY Murray heads into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals insisting 2009 has been the best year of his career – but admitting the pressure is growing to break his grand slam duck.

The British No1 has won six tournaments this year – more than anyone else on the ATP Tour – but his failure to triumph at one of the four majors continues to hang over him.

Expectations were sky high after his US Open final appearance last year but a semi-final defeat by Andy Roddick at Wimbledon was the best he could manage this season. And Murray, who will take on Juan Martin del Potro in tomorrow's opener at the O2 Arena in London, knows victory in the prestigious season-ending tournament would be a big step towards winning on the biggest stage of all.

The 22-year-old said: "This tournament is just behind the grand slams, because you have to win five matches or four matches against the top players in the world.

"Everyone views it a little bit differently but I still believe that I have a few chances, maybe one or two more chances, to win a grand slam.

"For me, the year's been a successful one. For some people grand slams are the be-all and end-all. I want to win one, I'm trying my best to win one and I'll work as hard as I can. I feel like I'm getting closer than I was a couple of years ago. I feel I'm a better player than last year.

"My consistency this year has been superb. Physically I've felt like I've been a lot better this year. I've not had any real let-downs in any tournaments except in Rome – I've lost one first round the whole year, which is better than previous years. I've got a better record against all the top players this year so it's been my best year on tour without question and hopefully next year will be better."

Murray has been drawn in the same group as US Open champion Del Potro, world No1 Roger Federer and Fernando Verdasco for the round-robin event, with Rafael Nadal, defending champion Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko and Robin Soderling in Group B.

&#149 ATP chairman Adam Helfant has confirmed the governing body will not be reinvestigating Andre Agassi's positive drugs test in 1997 and cannot impose retrospective sanctions.

The American stunned the tennis world with the revelation in his recent autobiography he failed a test for crystal meth and then lied about how it came to be in his body to avoid a ban.

"There has been a lot of speculation about whether the ATP would reopen the case but we cannot do that because he's no longer playing on the tour," said Helfant.