Tennis: Andy Murray believes an elusive Grand Slam title is now within his reach

ANDY Murray insisted last night that he still has what it takes to win several Grand Slams. The Scot has been in three major finals – two at the Australian Open and one at the US Open – only to lose all three, but is confident that he has already made improvements during the brief time he has had working with new coach Ivan Lendl.

Murray is behind Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the world rankings, and all three have won multiple Grand Slams. He did not venture to suggest that he would catch up with or overtake them, but said he hoped that, once the careers of all four were over, he would be bracketed with them.

“I’m going to win one,” the world No 4 said at a public forum in Edinburgh. “I’m not saying I’m going to win six. But if I can get a few I can be remembered in the same breath as those guys.”

Murray’s abiding memory of the Australian Open, when he lost in the semi-final to the eventual winner Djokovic, is one of disappointment. But he has also taken away the firm belief that, with Lendl in his camp, he is closing the gap on the Serbian, the Spaniard and the Swiss player.

“I made a big improvement in Australia. I’ve got a new coach, I only spent five or six days with him in Australia and I improved.”

Murray, his elder brother Jamie and their mother Judy were speaking at “An Audience With The Murrays” at the National Museum of Scotland. Jamie, who has won a Grand Slam title – the Wimbledon mixed doubles of 2007 with former world No 1 Jelena Jankovic – agreed that Andy is a better player now than he was before the Melbourne tournament began.

“I think Andy took so many strides forward in his tennis, certainly compared to last year,” Jamie said. “He showed a lot of people what he can do. He has a really great chance to go on, play like that again and hopefully win Grand Slams.”

Judy was able to attend the first week of the tournament, but in the second was on duty with the Great Britain women’s Fed Cup team in Israel, where they went on to win every match and qualify for a promotion play-off. She had been unable to watch the semi-final, but explained how she had realised what the result was. “I was in Israel with all the girls,” she recalled. “They were watching it on TV and I was in my room stressing. Then we were on the bus going to practice and somebody said it had gone to a fifth set. About an hour later when no-one had said anything else to me... he must have lost.”

Andy said that he had bittersweet memories of the match itself, an exhausting five-setter. “There were a lot of ups and downs. He started much better than me, then I ended up getting back into the match. Some of the points in the third set were brutal. It was just a matter of a couple of points here and there. It was one of the longest matches I’ve ever played on tour, and probably one of the highest standards, too.

“In the final last year [also against Djokovic] when I lost in straight sets I didn’t play particularly well. This year was a huge turnaround and I played much better tennis. I was a few points away from winning the match and I came away from Australia feeling much more positive about my game.”

All the same, he also said he came away with a feeling of regret, as well as some aches and pains which only made themselves known after he had had some time to relax.

“The guys [his coaching team] were with me for two or three hours after the match and they were really positive.

“It doesn’t make it easier. I woke up the next four or five nights after it thinking about it, thinking I could have done better.

“It takes a little while to get over it. It was once I took three or four days off and I got home that I had a few problems and the body started hurting.”

The evening, chaired by Jonathan Overend of BBC Radio 5 Live, was the first in a series of RBS Museum Talks, and took place in front of a capacity audience of around 350 people in the main hall of the museum in the capital’s Chambers Street.

The event was recorded, and will be broadcast tomorrow night on BBC Radio 5 Live.

The audience included some other well-known athletes, including former rugby internationals Chris Paterson and Andy Nicol and boxer Alex Arthur.