Scotsman Andy Murray has declared himself fit and ready to bring his dynamic game to the 2009 Australian Open. On January 10, 2009, Murray shrugged off his nagging back injury and proved himself fit for the year’s first Grand Slam Tennis Tournament. Bookmakers and fans alike celebrated the announcement by installing the world’s number 1 player as a clear 5-2 favorite.

Having swept through the Qatar Open and with two recent victories over former number 1’s Roger Federer and a defining win over Spain’s Rafal Nadal, Murray downplayed his back pain and began to pack his bags for Melbourne. Murray now has six career wins over Federer and looked invincible in the Qatar finals, blowing past hot-serving American Andy Roddick, who dominated Nadal in the semis.

With many of the world’s top players rested and fresh, this year’s Australian Open promises to be the most interesting and competitive in many years. The Open begins on January 19th in Melbourne.

After Federer’s triumph over Murray in the 2008 US Open, the British number 1 has posted four consecutive wins over the Swiss star. While triumphs at Madrid, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are not Grand Slam events, they have boosted Murray’s ranking, resume and confidence. He will arrive at Melbourne with plenty of momentum and holds the distinction of being the player no other player wants to play.

Murray left the 2008 Australian Open in startling fashion. Eventual runner-up and lightly regarded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga upset the highly regarded 21 year old in the first round. Murray still smarts from that defeat and is determined to be prepared and stay focused throughout the 2009 Open. If he is successful, Murray will become the first British star to win a Grand Slam event in 73 years.

Well known for his brilliant ground strokes, dazzling speed and power serve, Murray has emerged as the game’s budding superstar. His chronic back pain may be his Achilles heel, but at Qatar he played through the condition. After dominating Roddick, Murray declared that his best tennis is yet to come. That declaration does not bode well for the rest of the Men’s Tour.

The 6 foot 3 inch, 185 pound right-hander, now boasts more than $5,000,000 in earnings in his young career. The Scot has 155 career wins against 55 career losses. The hot Australian Summer may well help ease Murray’s back tightness and he has committed to an aggressive healing regimen.

At 11-4, Federer is the bookmaker’s second choice while Nadal stands as the number three pick with odds at 10-3. In the past the Australian Open has been marked by dramatic upsets and gut-wrenching losses buy the sport’s top players. This year, it is hard to imagine that the championship will not be captured by one of the big three. But, when players down under, anything can happen. That is what the tournament’s supporters and fans are waiting to see.

I suppose its natural for a country that hasn’t had a tennis player who has won 4 titles in one year, and to have a young man who is regarded as the hottest player on tour, for the talk to be concentrated on Andy Murray’s potential. The odds on him winning a Grand Slam title in 2009 are quoted as 5-2 by the British bookmakers, and for the Australian Open 2009 in January those odds look to be pretty good. If he happens to win either of the season ending tournaments, and goes on to win the Cup in Shanghai then the odds will drop to even money.

His win at the Madrid Masters over Gilles Simon has the tennis world buzzing with excitement, and in Britain even the most conservative tennis fans are heralding Andy Murray as the next Number one player in the world. Murray himself continues to remain humble, and compares his success with that of Tim Henman by reminding everyone that Henman also reached the number 4 ranking, and was a fixture in the top 10 list for close to 10 years. The difference is that compared to Henman, Andy is only 20 and has captured two Masters trophies, he has recorded victories over all three of the players ranked above him, and has shown that on a any given day he can play back to back tough matches while continuing to retain his concentration. Andy’s meteoritic rise in the rankings has been accompanied by an equally impressive rise in the quality of the tennis he is playing. Compared to just 6 months ago his game has taken a giant stride forward, his service is much better, he shows more patience, and he has learnt how to construct points to take advantage of his opponents weaknesses on the particular day of a match. He is quick to take advantage of a problem his opponent is trying to conceal whether its because of injury or just plain exhaustion.

He holds a 3-2 winning advantage over Roger Federer, there are very few players who enjoy this distinction, and he has wins over both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. He is quick to remind all those fans who are jumping on his bandwagon that he considers himself to be a distant fourth behind the three players above him, “I’ve played well for the past 3 or 4 months, but these guys have been playing well for years now, I have a lot of work to do to reach their standards.”

If there is a tennis angel looking down on Andy, then it would be most appropriate for his destiny to be directed to the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. Can you imagine the excitement if he was to make it to the final, and to finally win his first Grand Slam event at home? Henman Hill would be renamed Murray’s Mountain, Scotland would proclaim him as their own true hero and refer to him as Bonnie Prince Andy, forcing the Brits to Knight him as Sir Andy Murray!

Not since King James 1^st. of Scotland became King James 6^th. of England back in the dark ages, has one person done as much to unite England and Scotland, as Andy Murray. Even the staunchest wavers of the flag of St. George are bending their stiff snooty traditions to greet Andy as ‘one of ours’. At the tender age of 21, he won’t be 22 until next May, Andy has climbed the tennis ladder to be number 4. I’m not sure if Tim Henman ever made it that high. Tony Motram did back in the nineteen fifties, but nobody else has come close. His biggest victory to date, according to Andy himself, was his win over Novak Djokovic at the ATP Masters in Cincinnati 7-6, 7-6. He beat Nadal for the second time in 2008 in the semi final of the US Open, then lost to Federer in the final. Andy said about his loss to Federer, “When Roger plays errorless tennis as he did in the final two matches in New York, he is practically unbeatable. He doesn’t give his opponents any openings, and he wins so many points on his service he is hard to break.” He went on to say, “I consider Federer to be the best player of the moder era, better than Sampras because he is so much better on clay. If it wasn’t for Rafa he would have won the French, and at least one Grand Slam by now.”

As for his own chances of becoming number 1 in the world, he reminds us that he’s only 21, six years younger than Federer. A lot can change in six years. The beginning of that change could be kick started when he participates in the 2009 Australian Open in January.

Already an outspoken young man, Andy has been criticized for speaking his mind and occasionally using bad language when he gets frustrated. If the swearing was really an issue he would have been fined by the either the umpires on court or by the tour officials off the court, to date neither has taken any action so it can be assumed that he doesn’t swear any more or less than any other players on tour. One word of advice for Andy, ‘just learn how to swear in a foreign language in much the same way that Marat Safin has been doing in Russian for years’. One of Andy’s greatest attributes on court is his ability to read his competition, to be able to quickly see their weaknesses or the patterns of their play, and play to them or keep away from them. He has often been called smart by the tennis commentators in a positive way, and he has shown himself to be polite and mature off court. A big influence has been made by his girlfriend Kim Spears who has been a kind of lucky charm for Andy at several recent tournaments. Maybe he relaxes more when she is around to watch from the stands, or maybe its knowing that he has someone from home to hang out with when he is away from home, after all he is really just a kid!