Andy Murray will start the new year as the hottest property in tennis, with the promise of £100 million from the management companies that are vying for his signature.

The world No 4’s present representative, Ace Group, is in danger of losing its most prominent client as Creative Artists Agency (CAA), a market leader that is bursting with enthusiasm to sign him, IMG, the recognised No 1 management company in sport, and Lagardère Group, a French conglomerate with interests in aerospace, publishing and sport, brandish their chequebooks.

There may be all sorts of restraints on such spending in an era of downturns and depressions — it is understood that Reebok, the clothing manufacturer, may be forced to pull out of its deal with Jelena Jankovic, the world’s No 1 woman player from Serbia, because of financial cutbacks. However, where Murray, who has played in only one grand-slam final, the US Open in September, is concerned, the money can be mustered.

What a remarkable position the 21-year-old Scot is in. IMG represents a traditional lure for the top players with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the world No 1 and No 2, on its books on long-term contracts. CAA has tempted Novak Djokovic, the world No 3 from Serbia, and is the nouveau riche tempting sporting stars to rub shoulders with superstars from stage and screen. David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo are on the same client list as Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and Will Ferrell (Murray’s favourite comedian, which may be a tipping point in its favour). The Times has learnt that CAA has made a “very good offer” for Murray and is quietly confident that he will be persuaded to join its burgeoning sports portfolio.

Lagardère is the dark horse. It has most of the leading French players, including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon, as clients and has exceedingly deep pockets. The pressure is therefore on Patricio Apey, Murray’s manager, who has signed him up to excellent deals with Highland Spring (a patch on his arm is worth more than £1 million a year); Head rackets, for which he is the new face, replacing Andre Agassi, who retired in 2006; Royal Bank of Scotland; and Fred Perry, the clothing firm which celebrates the centenary of the birth of its founder next year.

Ace Group’s contract with Murray was due to expire, so the Scot would have to have given Apey notice of an intention not to renew in order to have set off the stampede of agencies.

What matters most is Murray’s potential on court, where he has positioned himself as the “next most likely” to win a grand-slam championship, with the goldmine of becoming the first Briton to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon since 1936 uppermost in the thoughts of the thirsting suitors eager for a percentage of the spin-offs.

Never before has a British tennis player been in such a league, but Murray is not your average British tennis player. From the moment that he first swung a racket, it was clear that he offered something different and his progress through a Spanish academy to junior grand-slam success to his remarkable breakthrough this year when he reached the US Open final, won two Masters Series events, defeated Federer, Nadal and Djokovic (the last two for the first time) and qualified for the Masters Cup in Shanghai marked him out as a special player.

Federer has won 13 grand-slam titles and recently joined the select group of the 300 wealthiest residents of Switzerland, according to an annual survey published this month. The 27-year-old has been valued at SwFr100-200 million (£64-127 million) by Bilanz, the Swiss business magazine.

It notes that since 2005, Federer has been under the wing of IMG, which has tripled his annual income from advertising alone to $35 million (about £23.8 million). At the beginning of this year, the world No 2 signed a ten-year deal with Nike worth up to $130 million.