Graphic: How Andy learnt the F-words

If the first weekend of the new season is a forewarning of the year to come, start to mark down 2008 as one in the unforgettable category. Andy Murray — temporarily at least — is the form horse of the men’s game; Rafael Nadal lost in a final winning only one game; Lindsay Davenport won her second title since returning to the circuit after the birth of her son seven months ago and Bernard Tomic, regarded as the new sensation of the sport in Australia, has been offered the chance to become the youngest man to qualify for the Australian Open’s main draw at 15.

It has not taken long for the sport to catch alight — and there can be nowhere more apt for that to happen than Melbourne, which, on New Year’s Eve, recorded the hottest day of the hottest year since records began. It promises to be an exceedingly steamy Australian Open, even by recent standards.

Murray flew into Victoria’s capital last night, a spring in his step after collecting the Qatar MobilExxon Open title, defeating Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland, in a three-set final on Saturday. His world ranking will be No 9 when the first list of the year is published today and he will, therefore, be guaranteed to avoid one of the top eight players in the Australian Open draw until the quarter-finals.

Initially, his task will be to settle into an eight-man invitation event, the AAMI Classic at Kooyong, the former Open venue, which starts on Wednesday, and get a feel for Plexicushion, the new surface laid for the year’s first grand-slam tournament, that earned varied reviews from those who played on it last week.

Several players at the Hopman Cup in Perth complained of lower back pain, where Murray felt a twinge last week. Some say it is slower than the Rebound Ace it has replaced, others feel it is a degree or so faster, which is what the manufacturers had promised. One of the directors of Rebound Ace, Paul Bull, said recently that the Australian Open will now become “simply a clone of the US Open”, which won’t worry Murray unduly as New York brings the best out of him.

Whatever the whys and wherefores — and there will plenty of words written on the subject in the next three weeks — the tournament remains one of the golden four in tennis and for the first time since John Lloyd reached the final on grass in 1977, there are real hopes that a British player can figure in the latter stages.

Murray has yet to pass the fourth round of a grand-slam tournament. His run last year in Melbourne was ended against Nadal, the Spaniard, who was so drained by the match that he lost in the next round to Fernando González, of Chile. But the British No 1 has never entered such an event in more buoyant mood.

The amount of work, both physical and technical, he did in the December off-season in Florida has borne immediate fruit. The prize-money will maintain the spirits of his entourage, but much more to the point is that his career has reached a fascinating juncture. As he has often said, there is so much to his game that choosing the right time to play the right shot is more complex for him than some.

“When I was just starting to play on the Tour, a lot of the guys had pretty basic games and it takes less time to master a game that may be based on a big forehand or a high first-serve percentage,” Murray said yesterday. “I use high top spin, I can hit the ball flat, I like to come in and do different things with the ball. It’s taken me some time to learn how to play the right way and I’m still learning.”

It is understood that the 20-year-old will choose to spend more time in Europe in the early part of the year and not defend his title in San Jose, California, where he has triumphed in successive years. More likely, he will play in Marseilles and Rotterdam in February and could enter the Dubai Open before the two American Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami in March.