Resurgent Andy Murray aims to make mark

Thirty-one days might not seem like much of an off-season, especially when you have spent half that time either at a winter boot camp or travelling around the world, but Andy Murray will not be complaining when he starts his 2015 campaign this week.

Murray, whose last appearance of 2014 was in Manila at the end of November playing in the inaugural International Premier Tennis League, will return to action on New Year’s Day when he faces Gaël Monfils at the “Mubadala World Tennis Championship” exhibition event in Abu Dhabi.

As soon as his commitments there are complete Murray will head for Perth, where he will play in the Hopman Cup in preparation for the Australian Open. The year’s opening Grand Slam event begins in Melbourne in just 22 days.

The opening weeks of the season will give Murray the opportunity to assess what progress he made with Amélie Mauresmo at their pre-Christmas training camp in Miami. The Frenchwoman has been coaching Murray since early June, but this was their first extended opportunity to work on his game.

While nobody will be expecting the world No 6 to come out playing serve-and-volley or attacking at every opportunity, Mauresmo believes that he can benefit from coming into the net more frequently. “I think he has the ability to do it probably a little more often than he does,” she said. “It’s not an easy process. I think it’s also not a fast one. I know that. I think we’re both looking towards that. You can’t do everything at once.” Murray’s failure to reach a Grand Slam final this year for the first time since 2009 can be attributed largely to his recovery from the back surgery he underwent at the end of 2013. In the coming year, however, he will be expecting more of himself.

“Last year was about getting myself back up to the levels required to compete with the best in the world and in 2015 the plan is to take that a step further,” he said. “Towards the end of the season I was building some real momentum.”

While Murray had good reason to be proud of reaching last month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals – he did so by winning three of the six tournaments he played during a gruelling run after the US Open – his performances in London were a reminder that he still has to bridge a significant gap between himself and the very best. Straight-sets defeats to Kei Nishikori and Roger Federer saw Murray go out of the tournament after the group stage.

Since winning Wimbledon 17 months ago the Scot has played 11 matches against the five men ahead of him in the world rankings – Novak Djokovic, Federer, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Nishikori – and lost them all.

Tournament successes in Shenzhen, Vienna and Valencia in the autumn ended a run without a trophy that had dated back to the summer of 2013, but even in those triumphs Murray was sometimes pushed to the limit by players who might not have fared as well when he was in his pomp.

Murray, nevertheless, clearly believes in the direction he is heading. He recently parted company with Dani Vallverdu and Jez Green, two of the longest-serving members of his entourage, which looks likely to strengthen Mauresmo’s influence.