Graphic: Murray serves warning

I am sure I remember Roger Federer saying more than once that he never really believed in the drop shot and he goes out and wins the French Open — and the Madrid tournament before it — and I’d never seen him play so many of them in my life. He realised it is a shot that can be so destructive if played properly. My brother Andy perhaps used to play it too much, but he also has a little s****y slice that dies on the court. He’s brilliant at that. It’s not a drop shot at all, but most guys don’t know how to react to it and panic because they’re not used to coming up the court.

It requires a tremendous amount of skill. It’s difficult to picture it and even harder to control it against the power of today’s groundstrokes, but it’s a great tactic on grass because, whereas on clay the ball can stick and come up at you, the softer grass allows the ball to sink down so that an opponent has to play the next shot off his toes and can’t do anything positive in return.

Andy knows that he has all the shots and his use of the slice is as exceptional as anyone. If he plays the tennis he can this fortnight, he’s going to go a long way. He’s good enough to beat anyone in his half of the draw so long as he plays to win. Maybe sometimes in the grand slams he’s been guilty of waiting for the other guy to miss and if someone comes out and plays in a zone, like \ Söderling did in Paris and \ Verdasco did against Andy at the Australian Open, he will have to up his game to match them.

But he’s the No 2 player in the tournament, he’s won four titles this year and though he knows what it is going to be like in front of a home crowd, I don’t believe he necessarily worries about anything. He understands how it all works; it matters more what expectation he has of himself rather than what others have of him.

The level these top guys are playing at is incredible. You see Federer winning a fourteenth grand slam and his record is so consistent because he has it in him to peak at just the right moment, he knows what is happening up here in the head. It’s about backing yourself to play the big shot at the right time and he has that down to a fine art.

The loss of Rafael Nadal leaves the event short of a lot of its charisma. I agree with Andy, he is my favourite player to watch, the way he plays is truly inspirational. You had to think that one day his knees might come to grief. It is unfortunate that the No 1 tournament in the world has to do without the No 1 player and defending champion because what he has given to the game has been pretty amazing. But you can only deal with so much pain.

As for me, this is the tournament that means the most. However you may have been playing (and I have not been having the greatest of times) the people actually come to see you play, which is not the case in most places. You really want to show them what you can do.