Scot is adamant nothing has changed in his mentality since taking top spot
Friday 11 November 2016 18:17, UK
Andy Murray insists the faster court conditions at London's O2 Arena will help aid his chances of ending the season as world No 1.
The 29-year-old has enjoyed an incredible 11 months in which he has won Wimbledon for the second time, claimed a second Olympic singles gold medal and landed his fourth consecutive title after winning the Paris Masters last weekend.
Murray is now preparing for the prestigious season-ending ATP World Tour Finals where he has never won the competition but will be looking to retain his position as the top-ranked player in London, which he took from Novak Djokovic on Monday.
The Scot has losing career head-to-head records against all three of his main rivals, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic, but believes the change in surface speed to previous years will benefit his game.
"The court is definitely faster this year. It's quicker than it has been in the past, so that will changes the way you play the matches a little bit, but that's a positive thing," said Murray during a press conference in London on Friday.
"In a year where a lot of the players have played a lot of tennis, they've done it on the slowest courts with really, really long rallies so it will shorten the points a bit and maybe make for some better tennis.
"I wasn't told it was going to be faster. I just practised here and on Thursday I realised it was obviously going to be quicker and heard that they wanted to keep it similar to Paris, which I think is good.
"I heard Basel was also fast, so from a players' perspective, so long as there're consistency in the surface then it's a positive thing.
"I think in Paris, you saw some slightly different tennis from what I believe you see at a lot of the other tournaments because of the surface.
"If the court is a little bit quicker then you might see a lot of the guys up at the net more, see some shorter points, see some quicker matches. I think that's good."
Murray is adamant nothing has changed in his mentality now he is ranked No 1, especially with his notoriously demanding coach Ivan Lendl reunited with him this week.
"Ivan congratulated me on getting to No 1 on the phone, but then he started talking about what we were going to do to prepare for this event," he said.
"When we got here it was back to work on the things we are trying to improve. I like that. It's good.
"I don't want to spend time discussing what's happened in the last few months. I want to keep getting better.
"That's what I've always tried to do. I don't feel any different."
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