While the next Grand Slam may still be more than two months away, Andy Murray believes success in the forthcoming ATP World Tour Finals in London can help put him back level with the world’s leading players.
Murray missed the season-ending tournament in London last year after undergoing back surgery and then struggled to regain his form, slipping down the world rankings in the process.
However, three titles in the space of the last six weeks saw him back to winning ways and helped book his spot in London for the Finals.
World number six Murray has been drawn alongside Milos Raonic, Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori in Group B with his first match against the latter the opening contest of the tournament on Sunday.
Murray has yet to beat one of the top three – Novak Djokovic, Federer or Rafael Nadal – in 2014.
Although the 2013 Wimbledon champion believes it will not be long before he is back firing on all cylinders, with January’s Australian Open the next big challenge after London.
"Hopefully just by playing against them and putting myself in position to compete against them, I'll get back to that top, top level again. I hope that it happens this week,” he said.
"The last few weeks have been good; I've started to make some improvements again and win more matches.
"The big test is I want to be getting to the latter stages and competing for the Grand Slams. We'll only be able to test that next year really.
"I said to [coaches] Dani [Vallverdu] and Amelie [Mauresmo] after (the US Open in) New York that I wanted to play tournaments, I wanted to try and play matches, and get back to winning matches.
"I told them I don't care if it's on the Futures [Tour], the Challengers, I want to get back to winning tournaments and having that feeling again.”
© Sportsbeat 2014