Coaches? Who needs them?
Andy Murray went to San Jose in California last week to play in the SAP Open without Mark Petchey, who has been his guiding light during his spectacular progress over the last nine months but wanted to spend half-term week with his children.
Keeping company with
Murray instead was his girlfriend, Kim Sears, the daughter of the British tennis coach, Nigel Sears, who currently works with the Slovakian player, Daniela Hantuchova.
The result? Murray enjoyed the best week of his professional career, culminating in a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory in Sunday night's final over Lleyton Hewitt, the former Wimbledon and US Open champion.
It brought Murray his first ATP Tour title and took him for the first time into the world's top 50.
Murray raced into the crowd to kiss Sears after his triumph and later agreed that her presence had helped him to relax.
"Hopefully, she'll come to a few more tournaments," Murray said, adding that he had spoken to Petchey on Saturday night after his semi-final victory over Andy Roddick.
"He was a bit worried I was going to sack him and hire my girlfriend," Murray said.
If there were those who thought that Murray's progress might slow down after his exhilarating first year as a professional, his performances in California showed that the 18-year-old from Dunblane has every prospect of continuing his improvement.
This triumph took Murray's ranking to No 47, only four places behind Greg Rusedski and seven behind Tim Henman, and if he is already the leading British player in the eyes of the watching world, that status looks certain to be confirmed soon by the official standings.
Memphis, where he will be joined this week by Petchey, is the next stop on Murray's schedule as he concentrates on the American hard-court surfaces which are so much to his liking.
His ranking has improved to such an extent that he should no longer have to qualify or rely on wild cards to play in the biggest events.
While Murray's performances on grass last summer and in Bangkok in the autumn, when he lost to Roger Federer in his first final, were remarkable enough, the victories over Roddick and Hewitt have taken him to another level.
Roddick, ranked No 3 in the world, is his biggest scalp so far - Murray woke up in the middle of Saturday night and could not sleep as he came to terms with his achievement - but his victory over Hewitt, the world No 11, showed that he can handle playing for such high stakes.
After a poor start, Murray recovered to take control on Sunday with a display that combined power and precision with an inventiveness that has become his trademark.
Hewitt has not won a title for more than a year after a series of injuries but he returned to play in the Australian Open last month and showed in San Jose that he was starting to find his feet again.
The Australian had not lost a set all week and made a flying start, breaking Murray's serve three times in the first set.
However, even as the teenager made early mistakes, there were indications that the Scottish cause was far from lost.
Murray broke back immediately after dropping his serve in the second game and although Hewitt then won four games in a row to take the set his opponent had break points to win the sixth and eighth games.
The Scot immediately built on that promise in the second set as he found his rhythm.
Playing mainly from the back and choosing carefully when to attack, he started to outfox Hewitt with his clever variations of pace and angle.
The Australian, perhaps unnerved by the power of Murray's returns, was broken twice as the Scot took a 3-0 lead.
Murray took the second set when Hewitt conceded a double-fault on set point.
The final set swung one way and then the other as service breaks were traded.
A winner down the line off Hewitt's second serve put Murray 2-0 up, but Hewitt broke back immediately when the Scot netted a forehand and went on to save three break-points to level at 2-2.
A backhand passing shot gave Murray a break at 4-2, but once again the Australian immediately replied in kind.
Despite his erratic serve, booming aces twice came to Hewitt's rescue on match point.
Murray, however, kept up his steely mask - "I've been working on not showing too much emotion because against the top guys they give you so little and can come back from any position," he said afterwards - and took immediate control of the tie-break.
He raced into a 3-0 lead with two points against the Hewitt serve, set up match point with a 126mph ace and secured victory at 6-3 with a clever crosscourt backhand.
"In the tie-break, I decided not to come off the court with regrets, saying I could have gone for it a bit more," said Murray, who is the youngest Briton to win an ATP title.
"I went for some big shots and it paid off."
While the bookmakers were cutting odds about Murray to win everything this year from Wimbledon (25-1 from 33-1) to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (6-1 second favourite behind Wayne Rooney from 16-1), the player himself was keeping a sense of perspective, although he agreed it had been the best week of his career.
"This might get me to the top 50, but there are still 49 guys out there who are better," he said.
"Memphis is going to be pretty difficult. I'll only have one day of practice on those courts. I'm just going to take things one match at a time."
Petchey, who described Murray's victory as "a phenomenal effort", said that his next goal would be to reach the world's top 32 before the French Open at the start of June in order to get seeded.
"I said a week ago that I still believe you're going to see Andy's best tennis in his 21st year and I still maintain that," he added.
Hewitt, who said that Murray had returned so well that he always felt under pressure on his serve, compared the Scot's rise to that of Rafael Nadal, the world No 2.
"I think he's a guy who's confident out there and that's what it takes to make it on the tour at a young age," Hewitt said.
"That's why Nadal and Andy have done well at such a young age. Murray's going to continue to get better and better in the next few years."
The Australian also compared Murray to Miloslav Mecir, the Slovakian who was one of the game's most talented and unpredictable players.
"I guess there haven't been too many 18-year-olds in the last five years or so with that kind of skill," he said.
"He hits the ball extremely well. He mixes it up extremely well.
"He's a great prospect for British tennis. He mixes his pace on his serve and groundstrokes too. He changes things up out there and it's one of the best parts of his game. He's definitely got firepower to use."
Murray was followed on court by John McEnroe and Jonas Bjorkman, who won the doubles tournament by beating Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas 7-6, 4-6, 10-7 to give the 47-year-old his first ATP title for 12 years.
McEnroe was impressed by what he had seen of Murray over the previous week.
"I predicted a few months ago that Murray would be in the top 20 around Wimbledon and I think there is an excellent chance of that happening," he said.
"You see a guy like Murray and you see the potential that is there. The sky is the limit, it really is."
- INDEPENDENT
Andy Murray in action at Auckland's Heineken Open earlier this year. Herald file picture
Coaches? Who needs them?
Andy Murray went to San Jose in California last week to play in the SAP Open without Mark Petchey, who has been his guiding light during his spectacular progress over the last nine months but wanted to spend half-term week with his children.
Keeping company with
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