Murray can bag SPOTY crown with London win
ANdY murrAY plans to break with habit and attend Sports Personality of the Year next month, partly because it fits in with his training schedule and doubtless because he actually has a chance of winning the main award.
The next eight days present a last opportunity to seriously press his claims, taking on the other seven best players in the world at the Barclays ATp World Tour Finals, back in front of the home support he hugely developed at Wimbledon and the Olympics.
The draw having done its best to put him in a Group of death, from which there will be two qualifiers into next Sunday’s semi-finals, this afternoon he faces Tomas Berdych.
How different it will be from their last meeting, and not just because this time they will be inside the 17,800-capacity indoor arena and not contending with the near gale that confronted them in their uS Open semi-final.
murray will this time surely feel the unequivocal warmth of a British crowd as he makes his first appearance at home since exorcising the ghost of Fred perry after 76 years without a men’s Grand Slam winner from this island.
In its fourth year in London, this event has grown to the point where more than 260,000 will flock to the old millennium dome, although for most people it comes third behind Wimbledon and the Olympic tennis in terms of prestige.
That is not quite how the ranking system sees it. A triumph at the All England Club gets you 2,000 points while an undefeated winner this week gets 1500, which is double what murray received for winning at London 2012.
This tells you a bit about how some in the game’s parish viewed the sport in the Olympics prior to its success this summer. However, it also indicates how the players value the season finale, which rewards purely those who have achieved most in the calendar year.
roger Federer, who has won it for the past two years, will want to dampen talk that the rivalry which matters most now is that between murray and Novak djokovic. This view has been strengthened by the absence of rafael Nadal since July, although the noises from majorca are more positive about him, with the expectation that he will begin practising on court this week with a view to a return at the start of next season.
despite his absence, this promises to be a better tournament than 2011. Back then both he and djokovic were sore and exhausted, while murray pulled out altogether with a groin injury, leaving the field open to Federer.
This time, though, the two uS Open finalists are likely to prove fitter and more eager and the likes of Berdych — who has a 4-3 career record over murray — will believe they have a real chance.
Federer yesterday admitted that being excluded from the djokovic-murray conversation was something of a spur. ‘I guess it motivates me,’ he said. ‘does it annoy me? No. I knew Andy and Novak were going to stay a long time at the top. They have played good matches against each other so it was natural they would get the limelight.’
For the first time murray is not the only British participant, with Jonny marray (left) in the doubles, which serves as the undercard in each session.
He and danish partner Frederik Nielsen gained entry as one of the world’s top eight pairs, thanks to their success at Wimbledon. In their group are robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau, whom they beat in the All England Club final, plus redoubtable veterans max mirnyi and daniel Nestor, and the skilful Indian pairing of mahesh Bhupathi and rohan Bopanna.
TODAY’S ACTION — Group A: A Murray (GB) v T Berdych (Cz), N Djokovic (Ser) v J-W Tsonga (F).
TV: LIVE on Sky Sports 1 from noon. Moves to Sky Sports 2 at 6pm.