Looking forward to the new tennis year and making a few predictions for 2007 would not, I think, be self-effacing about my predictive abilities - realistic, rather.

Last year, Philip Tetlock published a book called Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? After carrying out a 20-year study of political pundits he discovered that experts were no better at predicting the outcome of world events than a well-informed non-expert citizen. Too bad we didn’t know this before the war in Iraq.

Luckily, James Surowiecki published a book called The Wisdom of Crowds and that’s where you, the readers, come in. Surowiecki showed that the best predictions come from a large group of independent people. The large group should include experts but it should also include non-experts and with even a few idiots thrown in for good measure.

So, I’m going to make a few predictions and your job is to join in and voice your opinion and together we’ll do a much better job of predicting the future than any of us could do alone.

Will Andy Murray get over himself? When his game is off, Murray frequently launches into a non-stop barrage of verbal self-flagellation loud enough for television cameras to overhear. His coach Brad Gilbert isn’t the quietest guy in the world, either. What with telling Murray when to challenge calls and his own ongoing non-stop chatter, the ATP has its own entertaining version of Laurel and Hardy. It’s unlikely that Murray’s personality will change. Has Tommy Haas changed? Has Nicolas Kiefer changed? No, they haven’t - but I do expect Murray’s game to improve and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him win a Masters title this year.

Will Ivan Ljubicic get over his complex? Even when he was ranked number three in the world, tournament workers confused him with the qualifiers. He gets no respect and he won’t get any until he wins a big one. He’s one of those players who are perennially ranked high but don’t have a lot to show for it. Nikolay Davydenko used to fit into that category before he won a Masters Series Title and doubled his career titles in 2006. David Nalbandian is another, although he did win the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005. Ljubicic doesn’t have to win a Slam, that might be asking too much, but one of the indoor Masters Series titles on the slick fast carpet surface should be within his reach. In my opinion, though, the window of opportunity might be closing for him. I expect one of the younger players to pick up a Masters shield instead of Ljubicic.