Hot streak: why Andy Murray is the man to fear

At the conclusion of his pre-tournament television commitments yesterday, a last question was tossed at Rafael Nadal, world No 1, Wimbledon champion and international idol. “What do you think about Andy Murray?” he was asked — and he probably knew it was coming.

The topic is what everyone wants to know of everyone else in men’s tennis at a distinctive moment in the history of the game and it is not just the British who are consumed.

Nadal’s unblinking answer was to give a potted history of Murray’s various high and low points this year and remark that his present form was “tremendous, no?” The Spaniard’s press attaché may have been chiding ever so gently when he said, “You don’t want to speak to Rafa any more, do you?” but he was simply catching the prevailing mood.

Remarkably, the Spaniard is not considered a prospective champion on the slow, low-bouncing courts here. Murray is. When the draw for the BNP Paribas Masters was issued, the first name to which eyes were drawn was that of the man with No 4 at its side. Murray is the man of the moment and not for many, many years has British tennis had one of those.

The 21-year-old’s latest conquest required 56 minutes, a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Andrey Golubev, of Kazakhstan, a qualifier, in the final of the St Petersburg Open, which meant that, for the second time in his career, Murray successfully defended a title. This victory has more far-reaching resonance than when he won the San Jose tournament back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. Yes, there were some mighty fine victories in both those events, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt (two former world No 1 players) were beaten in the first year and Roddick once more, and Ivo Karlovic, the bigserving giant from Croatia on a swift indoor court, 12 months on.

This week, Murray could become the first man to win three Masters Series events in succession in the same year. He is already the first to have won two in a row, the first outdoors and the second beneath a roof. Roger Federer has never achieved the feat, nor has Nadal, nor Novak Djokovic and neither did those giants who managed to collect three inside a year — Pete Sampras, Thomas Muster, Marcelo Rios, Stefan Edberg and Andre Agassi.

Apparently, his exertions in St Petersburg — he played five two-set matches — have not caught up with Murray at all. He admitted to having the best time of his life and rewarded himself with a Big Mac. To each his own. “I’ve been lucky enough to hit a great winning streak and when you win matches like I am, your motivation is really high,” Murray said. “I don’t feel unbeatable, but I’m very confident in my matches. Players better than me have gone through their careers without winning a grand slam because it’s so tough and, whether it takes me a year or five years, that is something I want.”

Federer chose to play this week — he defeated David Nalbandian, of Argentina, 6-3, 6-4 in the Basle indoor event yesterday in 14 minutes longer than it took Murray to clobber Golubev — but Nadal and Djokovic preferred to rest. Off camera, Nadal confessed to feeling “very tired” and it would take a decent stretch of imagination for him to reach his seeded semi-final against Murray on Saturday. One would suppose the same to be true of the Scot, but the thought of a third successive Masters, a piece of tennis history and €360,000 (about £286,000) is not to be ignored.

There are an awful lot of players here with as much if not more to play for — 13 of those in the field have the opportunity to force themselves into the last three places available for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, from November 9 to 16. Murray is already checked in for that, a maiden flight.

He is the form man of the sport. There may even be those suggesting that he is the best player as we speak, but that conveniently overlooks Nadal’s triumphs in winning a fourth successive Roland Garros title, his first Wimbledon, the Olympic gold and leading Spain into next month’s Davis Cup final and that Federer won the US Open — walloping Murray in the final — and has just overtaken Sampras to become the highest earner in the sport’s history, with $43 million (about £27 million) in prize-money.

Where there is no doubt is that Murray is closing in fast on Djokovic’s No 3 ranking. Although he won the Bangkok title last month, the Serb has not been his boisterous, beguiling self in the past few weeks. He needs to do well here and in Shanghai to hold Murray at bay. And, in January, Djokovic will have the ranking points from this year’s Australian Open victory to defend, whereas Murray lost in the first round in Melbourne.

Domestic records are almost ten a penny for Murray these days. With yesterday’s success, he became the first Briton to win back-to-back ATP tournaments in the Open era since Mark Cox did it within the space of seven days in March 1975, in the long defunct WCT (World Championship Tennis) tournaments in London and Washington. Cox’s victims in those finals were Brian Fairlie, of New Zealand, and Dick Stockton, of the United States. They seem like blasts from a very distant past.