Greg Rusedski: Andy Murray's 2017 goal should be to win at least two majors

29 November 2016 03:39

Greg Rusedski thinks Andy Murray should be targeting multiple grand slam titles in 2017.

The 29-year-old will head into next season as the man to beat after clinching the year-end world number one spot by defeating Novak Djokovic at the ATP World Tour Finals.

Murray won his third slam at Wimbledon in the summer and will be looking to cash in on his current dominance to try to close the gap to his big rivals.

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have won 43 slam trophies between them and have all claimed three titles in a season at least once.

Rusedski told Press Association Sport: "I think next year is going to define how many majors he's going to win.

"Next year the goal's got to be to try to win at least two majors because usually the best player on the planet has the most majors in their pocket. This year was a rarity that the player who finished number one didn't have the most majors."

Murray finished the season on a winning streak of 24 matches and five titles and will shortly head to Miami for his pre-season training camp.

The Australian Open is only seven weeks away and, after losing in the final five times, a first title in Melbourne is an obvious big goal.

Should Murray achieve that, he would need only a French Open title to complete the career Grand Slam. He reached the final at Roland Garros for the first time this year, losing to Djokovic.

Former British number one Rusedski, who is playing in this week's Champions Tennis event at the Royal Albert Hall, said: " He's been in five finals in Australia, that's an astronomical amount of times without winning the title.

"For him, that's one of the slams you would have expected him to win first. He gets his off-season usually spot on so I think going in he has to be the favourite for the title.

"I always thought he could win the French but I think he didn't believe he could win. Djokovic finally won his first one this year, Federer only won his when Rafa went out, so it's not an easy thing to do.

"Rafa's going to be back and I'm sure Novak's going to be back but Andy's got a great shot."

Djokovic's victory in Paris in June marked the divide between two very different halves of the year.

So dominant for the first five-and-a-half months, the Serbian ended the season looking like a shadow of the man who briefly held all four slam titles.

Djokovic was the favourite to reclaim the number one spot in the final at the O2 Arena with Murray having survived an epic semi-final against Milos Raonic but produced an error-strewn performance.

The 29-year-old has admitted to feelings of burn-out as well as an unspecified personal issue, and Rusedski believes the sudden prominence in Djokovic's team of Pepe Imaz, a coach who focuses on mental well-being, is a sign all is not well.

"It's got to hurt," said Rusedski. " Had he won I think he would have gone away thinking, 'great year, won two majors and finished off number one'. Now Murray is the one who goes to the off-season with momentum.

"I just think you have to have your whole life in balance if you're going to be number one, and Andy's life is completely in balance at the moment.

"Djokovic just doesn't seem to be in balance. If Pepe's coming more to the forefront, that means obviously he's not feeling in balance because he's always been in the background of the team. It just seems a strange environment around his team at the moment."

:: Greg Rusedski will be playing Champions Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall from November 30-December 4. The final few tickets are still available from £18.50 at www.championstennis.co.uk/tickets

Source: PA