World number one Andy Murray says he has “work to do this year” in the wake of falling “behind” six different players through the span of 2017.
The rankings are ascertained over a 12-month time span however six of Murray’s opponents have collected more points this year.
“When we start on 1 January, it’s back to square one,” said the Briton, who is in Indian Wells having won his first title of the year in Dubai last week.
The 29-year-old beat Fernando Verdasco to win the title surprisingly.
However, a fourth-round annihilation by Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open in January implies Murray has ground to make up on Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin in the 2017 rankings.
He is, nonetheless, prone to hold the main positioning until at any rate the French Open.
“I felt like I wasn’t a bad player just because I lost a match at the Australian Open,” he told after a 16-hour flight from Dubai to Los Angeles.
“Australia wasn’t my tournament but I took a break after that, chatted to my team about things that I needed to work on, worked on them, and got to Dubai early.
“I played some good stuff where I hadn’t played well in the past. So that gave me a bit of a boost coming here, which is also a place where I haven’t played my best.”
Murray was the runner-up to Nadal at Indian Wells in 2009, however in the previous six years has endured early thrashings on account of Donald Young, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and – in a year ago’s third round – Federico Delbonis.
The thin betray air makes the ball fly and bounce off the court, and a year ago played devastation with the Scot’s serve. He kept down, because of a paranoid fear of missing, and was beaten in the second match he played.
His arrangement had likewise been a long way from perfect. On the Sunday before an occasion due to be organized outside in 30C betray warm, Murray burned through four hours and 54 minutes beating Kei Nishikori in the Davis Cup on an indoor court eight time zones away in Glasgow.
In any case, the current year’s warm up in Dubai was much best and Murray was eager when discussing Great Britain’s Davis Cup quarter-last in France.
That tie was secured in February when Britain beat Canada 3-2 without their driving player and will be held after the Miami Masters, which takes after Indian Wells.
Having beat shingles, Murray now has the unbalanced betray conditions to overcome, yet has been given a positive attract Indian Wells.
“It will have been a long stretch, but to get matches on clay is a positive thing – and my team are more pro it,” Murray said.
“If I’d gone to Canada, it would have been bad news because physically I was not ready. I was struggling a little bit with the illness so it was a good thing I didn’t go.”
