Stuart Bathgate: Scot is moving up, but too early to tell if form will have major influence

BACK in August 2009, Andy Murray rose to No 2 in the world rankings, so his status as the new No 3 is not unprecedented.

It is, nonetheless, a significant achievement, and one from which the Scot will take considerable heart as he continues his quest for that elusive Grand Slam.

For a start, after another year without one of those four major titles, the jump up the rankings is a tangible sign of progress for Murray. A result of his remarkable consistency in recent months, it is an objective reminder to him that he is moving in the right direction and that progress continues to be possible even in the toughest, most competitive of sporting environments.

At the top of world tennis, you have to run just to stand still. If you are merely as good as you were last year, you will lose more matches and so lose ground in the rankings. By climbing to No 3, Murray has served notice to the top two, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, that he too is capable of improving his game and that the chase is on.

For almost a year and a half now, there has been an undisputed top four in men’s tennis: Djokovic, Nadal, Murray and Roger Federer. Juan Martin del Potro was the last outsider to offer a serious threat to that oligarchy, briefly relegating Murray to No 5 in the wake of his 2009 US Open victory. From May 2010, however, the Argentine’s ranking fell steadily as a result of chronic wrist injuries. Even now, he has yet to get back into the top ten. The signs are that he may never regain the form he enjoyed all too briefly a couple of years ago.

But while Murray has taken heart from being a member of that ruling quartet since Del Potro began his own slow descent, there has long been a sense that the Briton has just been tagging along behind the other three, and a case for arguing that they were as far clear of him as he was of the chasing pack. They had the Grand Slam titles and occupied the top three places. He was no more than the best of the rest, the most able but also the most frustrated member of a generation whose misfortune it was to be playing tennis at the same time as an exceptionally gifted trio of opponents. In terms of the Grand Slams, of course, that remains the case. Federer has 16 majors, Nadal ten, Djokovic four – three of which have come this year. The best that Murray can boast is three losing appearances in finals – the Australian Open this year and last, and the US Open of 2008.

Although Murray is still only 24 and may well compete in another 30-40 Slams, even Djokovic’s tally already looks uncatchable. In other words, when a line is drawn under the careers of all four a decade or so from now, the careers of the other three will be seen as greater than Murray’s.

At least that will be the historical picture. But the rankings reflect the here and now and Murray must feel there is no reason he should not fare better than the other three for at least a spell in his career. Indeed, in the case of Federer, the British No 1 could remain higher in the rankings for most or even all of the time the great Swiss player has left in the game. Federer is 30 now, and has just experienced his first year without a Slam since 2002.

By the time we get to Melbourne for next January’s Australian Open, almost a full two years will have elapsed since Federer last won any of the four big prizes. His last Wimbledon title was in 2009, the same year as his solitary French Open win; his last US Open victory was 2008. The last time Federer was outside the top three was in the early summer of 2003, before he won the first of his five consecutive titles at Wimbledon. He has shown before that you write him off at his peril, but this time his relative decline looks less like a mere blip, and more like mortality has set in for a player once seen as nigh on invincible on grass and on hard courts. The most annoying thing for Murray right now – and the biggest piece of ammunition for those critics who think he will never win a Slam – is that the season is coming to an end just as he has found a rich vein of form. He may play on at this level for a few weeks yet, up to and including the ATP Finals in London, but there is no guarantee that he will begin 2012 in anything like the same shape.

Nor, of course, is there any guarantee that his three rivals will be as beatable over five sets in Melbourne or Paris, or at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadow, as they have been over recent weeks in best-of-three matches.

But Melbourne and Paris can wait. The best way Murray can prepare for next year’s challenges is to do what he can when he can, and right now he is doing it all exceptionally well.