Two of tennis most debated young men come of age within the next couple of weeks. Andy Murray will celebrate his 21st birthday on Thursday while Novak Djokovic has to wait exactly a week longer to receive the traditional key to his Monte Carlo door.

Yet if Murray is just marginally the senior in the age stakes, the maturity of newly crowned BNL D’Italia Masters champion Djokovic seems eons ahead. With a fourth Masters Series shield to add to his list of triumphs that of course are highlighted by January’s Australian Open title and the sort of demeanour that suggests he is enjoying every moment of his exciting young life, the young Serb is a credit to the sport that is both making him rich and more than grateful for his exuberant input.

The Djokovic way is to smile his way through life, savouring the good moments and taking a philosophical attitude when things might not go exactly to plan. Rarely does he allow the player on the opposite side of the net, even if he is experiencing the most horrendous of times whereas Murray’s body language of late is sort of thing coaching textbooks could adopt as the definitive way of not to behave.

Curiously both youngsters took on Stanislaus Wawrinka this week in Rome, another perfectly behaved young man who is a credit to his sport and will now become a good part of the reason why Switzerland are the world’s leading nation in the league that measures population per capita against male tennis players in the top ten.

Just as Murray experienced four days earlier, things initially did not go well for Djokovic against Wawrinka. The third seed lost the first set as the young Swiss showed he is maturing nicely into a player worthy of his new ranking amongst the game’s elite. But there were no histrionics, foul mouthed fusillades or hateful glares in the direction of the umpire’s chair.

All there was from Djokovic was a calm determination born out of the inner knowledge that he was more than capable of turning things around.

And so it turned out with a 4-6,6-3,6-3 score line the perfect illustration.

Murray as we all know fell away in straight sets, his displeasure of the first set worsening in the second so that by the end of the match he appeared so dissatisfied with his lot that anywhere else in the world would have done rather than a place on the courts of the Foro Italico.

Now the circus moves on to Hamburg’s Rothenbaum, the scene where Murray’s career did hit a real crisis a year ago when he suffered the wrist injury that would keep him out of both the French Open and Wimbledon. Hopefully he will realise how fortunate he is to be now be fully fit and start to count the positives of being a superbly talented young player.

Without doubt he should study the example of Novak Djokovic or perhaps even give his compatriot and Davis Cup colleague Jamie Baker a telephone call. Remember Baker is the player who could easily have died several weeks ago because of a rare blood disorder. He is happy to just be alive and is more than prepared to give Murray a briefing on the things in life that really matter.