Flying the flag

Cool customer: Murray is still having ice treatment on his wrist

Given the difficulties we have in this country putting together an established Davis Cup doubles pair, Fleming's and Skupski's success is a great story.

Barry Cowan
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Top seed Andy Murray has been given a kind draw in this week's Valencia 500 and I think he needs it because the Scot hasn't played really competitively since the US Open.

Yes, he took part in September's Davis Cup clash with Poland but he was only around 50 percent fit then. The tendinitis in his wrist was affecting him badly.

It is going to take Andy time to get back to full fitness even though he has been putting in the practice hours. There are bound to be a few doubts in his mind too because he wasn't able to hit double-handed backhands for a while.

So I expect he'll be rusty in his first couple of outings but his desire to win will see him through and come the weekend he should be in much better shape.

Platform

Andy's year, like that of the other top players, is geared around the grand slams and it's fair to say that he didn't perform as well as he wanted to at the US Open. He didn't disappoint but he was seeded two and didn't fulfil his own expectations.

The top priority for him now is to stay fresh and be ready to go come January 1. He needs to have a very good end to the year, especially at the World Tour Finals in London, to give him the best platform for performing in next year's grand slams.

The draw should help him because he's got David Ferrer in his quarter and then either Fernando Verdasco or Tommy Robredo in the quarter-finals, whereas Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Nikolay Davydenko are all in the bottom half.

Pressure

Verdasco is in the eighth and last qualifying spot for the 'Battle for London' and his cause is helped by the absence of ninth-placed Robin Soderling, who is not playing this week due to injury.

It looked like the pressure got to Verdasco in Shanghai, where he didn't play with the freedom that he had at the start of the year, but he can more or less confirm his London spot with a good week in Valencia.

Fernando Gonzalez, Tsonga, Marin Cilic, Gilles Simon and Radek Stepanek are all below him in the rankings and the pressure will be back on Verdasco if one of them wins this week. But that's a big ask.

Davydenko - seventh in the 'Battle for London' - has a poor record in Valencia but I don't think that will count for much this week and I expect to see him reach the World Tour Finals.

I know he disappointed in Moscow but that tournament came straight after his win in Shanghai. He's already own his first round match in Valencia and he looks fresh and ready to go.

Meanwhile, Federer makes his comeback in the other 500 event of the week, in Basle where he has a tremendous record. Novak Djokovic is also in the field but Juan del Potro has pulled out citing a wrist injury. The break should allow him to gather his thoughts after his US Open victory. When you break through as he did it takes time to plateau out.

Floater

On a different note, it was tremendous to see Jurgen Melzer return to the winner's circle at the weekend - what a talent he is! The Austrian is one of those guys that we all say should achieve more with his game but talent is not just about the ability to hit a tennis ball but it's also the ability to reproduce point after point, day after day.

For him to win in Vienna was a great, great effort. Hopefully it is a springboard for him to be a bit more consistent because on his day, as he proved when he overcame del Potro a couple of weeks ago in Shanghai, he can beat the best.

Looking ahead to 2010, the jury is still out on what he can achieve. He's 28 years of age now and the type of player he is you'd expect him to reach his peak round about now. Hopefully this is his time to make the breakthrough.

But until he learns to do it week after week after week, he's going to be one of those players who will be regarded as a dangerous floater but not consistent enough to be in the top 15 - even if his ball-striking is that good.

Success

I can't let this chance pass without congratulating British duo Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski on their second tour title of the year.

Given the difficulties we have in this country putting together an established Davis Cup doubles pair, their success is a great story.

After winning in Metz in September, Fleming and Skupski beat Jeremy Chardy and Richard Gasquet 2-6, 7-5, 10-4 in the final of the St Petersburg Open.

Both of them have been to college - Skupski at Louisana State University and Fleming at Stirling University - so they do have some experience behind them; by hitting the Tour when they have done they are now ready to make the break.

The question now is how high can they go? Can they get into the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Masters events because that's what you need to do to get into the Top 20?

Doubles is the form of the game that is played by most people in this country. Hopefully their success will show to other guys that it is possible to win titles, thereby bringing up the rest of the pack.