AS ANDY MURRAY returns briefly to his Surrey home and reflects on lessons learnt at the US Open he can expect a telephone call from the head of men’s tennis to remind him that his prime objective should now be to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London’s 02 Arena.
Chris Kermode secured the job as the ATP executive chairman and president for several reasons. He had earned the respect and support of leading players such as Murray because of the way he ran two London events, the Aegon championships at Queen’s Club in July and the World Tour Finals, which, since moving to the O2 in 2009, has become one of London’s great sporting box office successes.
So Kermode has no choice but to take issue with Murray’s parting shot from Flushing Meadows, when the Scot spoke of the Race to London and being one of the top eight players to contest the World Tour Finals and said: “To be honest, it was not a massive goal of mine. It’s obviously nice to qualify, it’s a good tournament. I played a number of years and enjoyed it, but I won’t expect to overplay to try to qualify.”
This year’s event runs from November 9-16. Although Murray missed last year’s event because of back surgery, he has been as integral to the tournament as the presence of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. Regardless of Murray’s fall down the rankings this year, John McEnroe summed it up when he said: “For me, you still look at the Big Four in men’s tennis and it does not matter how the top 10 currently reads, I include Andy in that quartet.”
Murray’s is next scheduled to play at the Shanghai Rolex Masters — an event he won in 2010 and 2011 – starting on October 5.
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The week before that he has wild-card entries open to him at the China Open in Beijing and the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo but is stressing the tournament directors by delaying his decision on which to play, or indeed whether to play. Every week for the remainder of the year is a ranking bonus for Murray and one lesson he should learn is that being placed as low as world No 9, as he is just now, leaves him susceptible to quarter-final meetings with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
The 27-year-old does not have any ranking points to defend until January’s Australian Open and his past record suggests that the concluding weeks of the calendar are profitable for him. Asia has produced rich pickings in the past for Murray and in 2011 he had an exceptional three weeks of success when he won the titles in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai. Two years earlier he also won a title in Valencia during the autumn.
In Shanghai and Paris this year there are 1,000 points on offer to the winner, while either Tokyo or Beijing has a top prize of 500.
In terms of the Race to London, Murray is now 10th, having slipped behind Kei Nishikori when the Japanese player beat Stan Wawrinka in five sets to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final. However, only 500 points separate five players and with two Masters 1000 events remaining in Shanghai and Paris, there is still much to play for.
The Parisian event, contested in the Palais Omnisports on the bank of the Seine at Bercy, has not been a particularly profitable tournament for Murray in the past.
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He has never progressed further than the quarter-final. Back in 2007, qualification for what was then the Masters Cup — the previous incarnation of the ATP World Tour Finals, played in Shanghai — rested on a match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet. Murray lost in three rollercoaster sets and it was a disappointment that he carried for some weeks.
Murray will do well to remember that, but in the meantime he seems intent on again improving his fitness levels, having been found wanting in the closing stages of his defeat by Djokovic in New York.
“I’ll take a break now for a couple of weeks and then decide what the goals are and what I want to do between now and the end of the year,” he said.
Hopefully within just a matter of days the answer will be clear, especially after he has received that telephone call from Kermode.