For several reasons, this year's Australian Open should be a much different experience for Andy Murray than the 2016 edition.
The most obvious reason is the number next to Murray's name: 1. Murray, playing in his 12th Australian Open, is the top seed at a Grand Slam for the first time. The Scot ascended to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings last season at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris in November.
Closer to home, Murray should have a more peaceful stay in Melbourne this January. Twelve months ago, his wife, Kim Sears, was pregnant and could have gone into labour at any point during the tournament. She gave birth to their daughter, Sophia Olivia, a week after Murray played in the final.
During the first week of the tournament, Murray's father-in-law, Nigel Sears, collapsed courtside on Rod Laver Arena while watching Ana Ivanovic play. Sears, who was coaching Ivanovic at the time, was OK and later flew home.
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“It was a tough tournament. Obviously the situation with Kim and the baby coming was tough. Then with what happened with Nigel during the event made it really awkward because there was times where I was thinking, I want to go home. But then also my father-in-law was here and in hospital,” Murray said during his pre-tournament press conference. “It was, like, I want to be at home for the birth, but then I'm not just going to sort of leave whilst my father-in-law is also in hospital. It was tough, and certainly not a position I would want to put myself in again, or my wife, or any of my family.”
The situation was so intense that Murray thought about withdrawing from the season's first Grand Slam. “It was certainly something that was talked about a lot, especially the second week of the event,” he said.
All of that is behind Murray and his family now, though, and he's hoping for a healthy and prosperous start Down Under in 2017. Murray has finished as runner-up in Melbourne a record five times, losing to Roger Federer in 2010 and Novak Djokovic in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
But Murray and Djokovic have split their last two meetings on hard courts. Murray won the final match of 2016 to claim the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking at the ATP Finals in London. Djokovic outplayed Murray in the final of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha earlier this month.
“Doha went well. Played some good stuff, especially at the end of the event,” Murray said.
The Australian Open will have one other new wrinkle for the 29 year old. It's the first Grand Slam since he received a knighthood in Queen Elizabeth II's New Year's Honours list.
Australian broadcaster Channel Seven plans to refer to Murray as “Sir Andy Murray” during its coverage. “I'm more than happy just being Andy. That's enough for me,” he said.
Players have also called Murray by “Sir”. Well, sort of. “Yeah,” he said, “but not genuinely.”
“Sir” or not, Murray opens against Ukraine's Illya Marchenko on Monday.