Despite Andy Murray’s slightly disappointing performance at the Tennis Masters Cup, there is no doubt he has cemented his place at the top of the game and will stay there for years to come.

Murray lost out to Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-final in Shanghai after tiring himself out beating Roger Federer in an epic three-hour encounter the day before.

In previous years I have never been a massive supporter of Murray due to his erratic performances, injuries and dodgy serve. Thankfully he spent time working on his physical condition before the start of the season with rigorous fitness and weight training sessions.

As a result of some serious hard work, it all came together in the second half of the year when he proved just how gifted he is, and I am now totally behind the seriously talented Scot. I would go as far to say that he is the best player in the world at the moment as he is able to play at the highest level for longer than anyone else due to his phenomenal fitness levels.

Once he got the clay-court season out of the way there was no stopping him as he delivered a number of amazing performances, coming back to win from seemingly perilous positions. If there was a tennis dictionary, under the definition of grinder it would just read 'Andrew Murray'.

There is absolutely no question that the turning point of Murray's year came when he fought back from two sets down against Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon. This match had the most amazing atmosphere I have ever experienced with the crowd, for the first time, really interacting and feeding off Murray's every move.

His aggression and fighting spirit sent the crowd into frenzy particularly when he broke Gasquet as the Frenchman was serving for the match. In the fourth and fifth sets I have never heard a Wimbledon crowd making so much noise for one player and then going as far as to actually boo the other for no apparent reason.

Murray's bicep-showing victory celebration will forever be an iconic moment in sporting history and I think after the victory all his previous bad press was put to bed. He was dominated by Rafael Nadal in the quarter-final but the Spaniard was simply untouchable at that time.

After a month off he then defeated Novak Djokovic twice in two weeks, which was a sure sign of his new found confidence. At the US Open he then conquered his nemesis Nadal, a player who he had never beaten. 

Unfortunately, after playing his best ever tennis to defeat the Spaniard, the very next day he had to contest the final against Federer. There was no way he was ever going to able to play unbelievable tennis two days in a row and he was easily beaten. I think the score would have been very different had he had a day to prepare himself mentally and physically.

He then won the next two tournaments he entered, Madrid and St. Petersburg, and this was a completely different Murray we were seeing compared to last year. He has always been a fighter, as this is his natural instinct, but in previous years I don't think he really knew exactly what he was fighting for. 

The difference this year was that he set his goals, got the tough physical training work done and put in extra hours on the practice court which installed a new self belief that he could compete with the very best in the world.

If he continues improving and  keeps injury free, I'm sure that his ultimate dream of being a Grand Slam champion will come true in the next couple of years.