World No. 4 Andy Murray tells the Scotsman that if he wants to become No. 1, he has to have a good fall season. Murray will be competing in upcoming tournaments in Tokyo and Shanghai.
Despite winning the U.S. Open, Murray is a long way from the top spot, as he is currently 3,180 points behind Novak Djokovic, who leads the calendar-year "Race to London" standings. The Scot has 1,930 points to defend the rest of the year and has chosen to play the ATP 500-level tournament in Basel this season, rather than Bangkok. Djokovic, whom Murray beat in the U.S. Open final, only has 560 points to defend.
“I think the end of this year, with the Tour Finals, and the beginning of next year is really where it’s most important that I play well,” he said. “I didn’t do anything at the Tour Finals [last year]. I obviously pulled out of there [with a back injury], I pulled out of Basel hurt and didn’t really do much in Paris—I made the quarters there—so there’s an opportunity there. Obviously, I can’t control what the other guys do but I can control what I do. If I have five or six solid tournaments, if I can stick with that and with an extra bit of belief and confidence in those big matches then hopefully I can go on a decent run. But the next couple of months may be hard as well. I don’t know. I might find it difficult for a number of reasons for the next couple of months. But I’ll try to keep it going. I want to move on from this and try to win more Grand Slams.”