Andy Murray, who had not fully recovered from a career-threatening wrist injury only a year ago, is now being touted as a man who could make tennis history. The 21-year-old world number four from Scotland beat both Federer and Nadal in the same tournament for the first time in Abu Dhabi at the weekend, and this week has been looking good enough to become the first Briton in more than 70 years to win a Grand Slam title.
Although Murray's big wins happened in an exhibition event, his manner and bearing while defending the Qatar Open title suggest that he too believes a history-making moment may not be too far away.
He would not be lured into saying he belonged in the same company as two legends of the game, but he did indicate that he knows how to beat them. "When you play against the first time you don't know really what to expect. You don't know how well you need to play to beat them," Murray said.
"But when you have done it a few times you get the sort of right mindset to play against them and you're pretty calm going in. Each time I play against them now I'll know what I need to do, and I'll just try my best to do it." A questioner then made the mistake of suggesting that he had got over his fear of playing two such great legends of the sport.
"Oh it's never fear playing against anyone," Murray contradicted. "It's never fear in a tennis match. There's other things you can be scared of, but not that. No, that's never really been a problem for me. Like I say, it's a better understanding of what you need to do." This understanding brought results which suggest he is starting 2009 already close to his best, without needing great efforts to build to the level he reached while getting to the US Open final in September.
It means Murray is no longer too concerned about trying to win the Qatar Open again, for a greater aim is to ensure his body is feeling good, and his level of play remains high for the Australian Open starting in Melbourne in 12 days time. Nor, he insists, is big money a priority - even though the appearance fees in Abu both Dhabi and Doha could boost his earnings during the first nine days of the new year close to a seven figure dollar sum.
"For me money was never really the reason I played tennis," Murray emphasised. "It is really, obviously, something which came with it. Tennis players do very well for themselves. "It becomes a problem if you take your foot off the gas, or you're trying to play 30 tournaments a year for appearance reasons, and all those sorts of things. But I'm playing a lot less tournaments than I planned the year before.
"This year I'm going to play 20 or 21 tournaments and make sure that I have rest time and that I continue to work hard. "That side of things hopefully takes care of itself. If you start playing just for money and chasing it, it affects your game. And my game is more important to me than the money." Asked if he was ever conscious of what he was earning, especially at the winner-takes-all 250,000-dollar Abu Dhabi final, Murray admitted to a slightly different mindset.
"When you're playing these tournaments and the Slams you are playing to win the tournament and for the ranking points, you know, to try and sort of become a better player. "In the exhibition matches you're normally playing to see where you're at and have fun. In the first couple of matches in Abu Dhabi I wasn't thinking of it at all, and in the final, just a little bit.
"But it's not something which is going through my mind if I'm serving for a big tournament or whatever." All of which suggests that, despite Federer's and Nadal's continued excellence, Murray could soon find himself situated to go one further than John Lloyd, the last Briton to reach the Australian Open final, more than 30 years ago.