IF THE events of the last six months are anything to go by, Andy Murray is a teenager who tends to get his own way. Now, after attaining a year-ending place comfortably within his own initial aim of the world’s top 100 players and consequent direct entry to next January’s Australian Open and the rest of 2006’s Grand Slam tournaments, the young Scot can formulate a new wish list. The opportunity of playing Davis Cup tennis on home soil clearly figures close to the top.

Murray is convinced that Scotland will host Britain’s next fixture in the team competition and there is growing support for such a move from within the sport.

Next April, Britain will begin yet another campaign designed to reclaim a place in the Davis Cup’s elite world group by hosting either Israel or Serbia and Montenegro in the competition’s second division that goes by the name of Euro/African Zone group one. Barring mishaps, Murray will play a crucial role and, according to the player himself, he will do so in front of a home crowd.

Regardless of the fact he has spent only two days at home in Dunblane since last Christmas, Murray makes his patriotism known at every turn and many an unknowing foreign inquisitor has been dealt a withering scowl before being informed just how erroneous it is to refer to the 18-year-old as English. Yet sounding far more affirmative than he has ever done before or after a match, Murray insisted: “The next Davis Cup match will be in Scotland.”

If such a decision actually has been made, the Lawn Tennis Association is showing a reluctance to announce the fact although they are within their rights to wait until the end of January before confirming a venue. Hesitancy has habitually been a failing of Britain’s ruling tennis body although a desire to stage a tie north of the border was on their agenda long before Murray rose to prominence.

“We see staging a Davis Cup tie in Scotland as an exciting and realistic possibility,” said Gavin Fletcher, the LTA’s events and tournaments director, while Muriel Adams, the president of Tennis Scotland, believes there is a “groundswell of support” for the switch. Potential Scottish indoor venues include the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre and the Braehead Arena in Glasgow and the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. “We are considering all options and whilst our number one priority is to choose a venue that will give us the very best opportunity of winning the tie, it will also need to be able to stage a professionally run event and we hope be supported by an enthusiastic home crowd,” added Fletcher.

In terms of potential capacity, the AECC is slightly smaller but the events of next weekend will undoubtedly be paramount in the final choice. Murray will be the main attraction in the Aberdeen Cup waged between a Scottish team that also features Elena Baltacha and England, led by Greg Rusedski. However, this event is unquestionably just the sort of exhibition match the ATP have been trying to eliminate. Basically it does not count; the results will not be officially recorded, ranking points are most certainly not on offer and besides making money for both the organisers and competitors, it serves only to further shorten an already truncated off-season that is bemoaned as too brief by injured and drained players.

The Scottish paying public clearly think differently. More than 2,300 tickets were sold in the first week of the box office opening and at the close of business on Friday less than 30% of seats were still available for the two-day event. Andrew White, chief executive officer of the London-based sports marketing consultancy WSM who are staging the event insisted: “We believe that the support shown for the Aberdeen Cup makes Scotland a firm favourite to host future Davis Cup ties. The British team in April is likely to contain a number of Scottish players, so the best ‘home’ support could well come from north of the Border.”

Murray is of a similar mind. After a demanding second half of the year that has seen him rise to 66th position on the ATP world rankings, he opted not to play in last week’s IPP Open, a second-tier challenger event in Helsinki that presented an opportunity for him to rise still higher. Recently he has travelled to Germany and France for fitness assessments but could not resist the opportunity to play on home ground for the first time since a futures event in Glasgow 14 months ago.

As well as twice facing Rusedski at singles, Murray will partner his elder brother Jamie at doubles. “I’ve never played in front of a big crowd in Scotland so I’m really looking forward to the opportunity,” he said. “I went to watch Amir Khan fight in Glasgow and the reception I received was unbelievable. It was amazing to see how much interest the Scottish public has taken in my tennis and I really appreciate the fact.”

Aberdeen Cup, Saturday, Sky Sports 2, 5pm. Andy Murray v Greg Rusedski 8pm