In the immediate aftermath of his quarter-final defeat by Roger Federer on Wednesday night in Melbourne, Andy Murray had appeared far from enamoured with the thought of playing a Davis Cup tie on clay next weekend.
The Scot looked to be questioning the wisdom of switching surfaces so quickly to the one which caused his back the most trouble before he underwent surgery in September. But although he woke up stiff and sore yesterday, Murray has renewed his commitment to the Davis Cup and will lead Britain as they return to the elite World Group for the first time since 2008.
The word from the Murray camp yesterday was that the Scot is looking forward to the challenge of taking on the United States in their back yard, even if he may have to play all three matches to give his side a chance of victory.
Murray had suggested that he might go home before making the trip to the west coast of America, but a quick look at an atlas would have made him realise that was probably not the best idea, in terms of overcoming jet lag.
With the tie beginning a week on Friday, Murray will spend a couple of days getting over the disappointment of losing to Federer and getting ready mentally for the Davis Cup match, before flying to San Diego on Sunday.
Reaching the quarter-final after just two competitive matches in four months was a an admirable achievement from Murray, even if he will fall at least two places in the rankings to No. 6. That will take him below Juan Martin Del Potro and Stan Wawrinka, who last night reached his first grand slam final.
Should Federer beat world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the second semi-final, to be played this morning UK time, Murray would slip to No. 7, his lowest ranking since July 2008.
Murray has been away from home for several months now and he seems likely to go home to the UK after the Davis Cup. His next assignment would then not be until the week beginning February 24, on hard courts in Acapulco.
The good news is that Murray is not feeling any significant pain in his back and can hope to ascend the rankings again quickly. "I'm happy with the way it's held up," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article