Andy Murray sits in a quiet room on the first floor of the clubhouse at The Queen’s Club in west London. It is a crisp, bright day outside and a groundsman and his mower are starting to bring summer’s lawns back to life. In its manicured beauty, it is a picture of serenity and of order.

Murray’s mind is clear and sharp now but he lets it drift back a few weeks to Melbourne and a time when it was madding with tumult and confusion. In the Australian Open men’s final, when he and Novak Djokovic were level after two typically gruelling and intense opening sets and the Serb appeared to be on the brink of a physical breakdown, Murray says he started to think too far ahead.

‘I was thinking, “Oh my God, this could be yours”,’ says Murray. ‘If someone is cramping in the final of a Grand Slam, the match is yours.’ But Djokovic recovered and Murray abandoned himself to uncomprehending fury. By the time Britain’s 2013 Wimbledon champion retrieved his composure, it was too late.

Andy Murray opens up about the battle with his demons during a candid interview

Murray stands alongside the net post and the Aegon Championships trophy at the Queen's Club

Andy Murray holds the runner-up trophy after being beaten in the Australian Open final by Novak Djokovic

The British No 1 screams in frustration during the defeat by Djokovic as Murray abandoned himself to fury

‘I definitely got down on myself,’ says Murray. ‘I don’t want that to happen. It’s not like I come off the court and I’m really proud of myself and I say, “Well done, Andy, you just blew the Australian Open”. Sometimes, the criticism afterwards can be quite difficult. I don’t want to behave that way. I’m telling you right now, I don’t want to behave that way.

‘Having learned a little bit about how the mind works, I understand that it can happen. It is like when a footballer gets kicked and stands up and slaps somebody across the face and gets himself sent off and then is immediately, “Oh no, why have I just done that?”

‘People don’t want to behave in those ways in pressure situations but unfortunately they do sometimes. I have only got myself to blame but in some ways, it’s natural. It’s something I’m working on constantly to try to improve. It’s not like I dismiss it and say it was nothing.’

As Murray thinks back to Melbourne, to screaming at himself, to contorting his face with anger and yelling up at the section of seats where his coach, Amelie Mauresmo, his fiancée, Kim Sears, and other members of his team were sitting, he recoils at the memory. He knows it was self-defeating.

Murray will return to the Queen's Club this summer as he bids for a fourth Aegon Championships title

The Mail on Sunday's Chief Sports Writer Oliver Holt (left) pictured with Murray at the Queen's Club

Murray breaks his racket as he smashes it against the floor in rage at the final in Melbourne

The Scot holds his face in anguish as the chance of his third Grand Slam slipped away from him

Murray gestures in frustration after losing a point during a disappointing end to the Australian Open

It is one of the reasons why he has been open about the fact that, like many other leading sportsmen and women, he has sought the counsel of a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Mental health and the psychology of the game is a theme one of the greatest British sportsmen of our generation keeps returning to over the next hour.

‘In the past, the things I would say on court, it’s embarrassing,’ says Murray. ‘I would never, ever speak to anybody like that. Ever. Here or in a restaurant or in my day-to-day life, I would never do it.

‘If you listen to a lot of the things I say when I’m on the court, I’m incredibly self-critical. But I have learned how the emotional part of our brain takes over, that what we will tend to do is try to make excuses and blame other people and say that it isn’t your fault.

‘But I know fine well when I come off the court after the match, the first person that I blame is myself. I don’t want to say anything wrong to anyone when I am on the court, but it happens. When someone starts questioning you and you are in a pressure situation, the natural thing to do is to start making excuses for why you are doing something wrong.

Murray admits he is embarrassed by his outbursts and reveals he would never react like that in day-to-day life

Murray grimaces as he reaches to make a forehand shot during an infuriating final for the Scot

A distraught Murray holds his head in his hand as he faces the press after the crushing defeat

‘So sometimes I will say, “Oh, I missed that backhand because I haven’t practised it enough”, when I know that that is not the case and I know it is completely irrational. It is something I am constantly trying to get better at. I have spoken to a lot of athletes and that is what we do.’

To understand more about Murray, it helps to understand a little of Mauresmo, too, and why Murray appointed her as his coach in June last year, a few months after his split with Ivan Lendl. Many said it was a ‘brave’ move, which was their code for ‘stark, staring mad’. Most thought the partnership would fail. More than that, it seemed last summer and for much of the time since that most people hoped it would fail.

Mauresmo was only 19 when she announced at a press conference at the 1999 Australian Open that she was gay. Lindsay Davenport, whom she had just beaten in the semi-final, said that battling Mauresmo was like ‘playing a guy’. Martina Hingis, who beat her in the final, said that Mauresmo was ‘half a man’.

She was labelled a choker, even though she reached world No 1, having lost in several Grand Slams from positions of strength. But then in 2006, towards the end of her career, she won the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Murray started working with Amelie Mauresmo in June last year, a decision that was questioned

Murray revealed that after talking to Mauresmo he found her very calming and listened to what he had to say

Mauresmo was labelled a choker during her playing career even though she was world No 1

Murray knew her story and was inspired by it. He spoke to her and was impressed. He liked the fact that she seemed to have found an inner peace and that she was not bloated with the bombast that seemed to dominate the characters of some of the male coaches on the ATP Tour.

‘The reason I started working with her was that when I sat down and spoke with her, I found her very calming,’ says Murray. ‘She listened to everything I said. It wasn’t like I started talking and then she immediately just started talking over me.

‘One of the things I felt she did extremely well as a player — and I felt she could help me with — was that she used a lot of variety on the court. She used a lot of slice, different spins. She used to come to the net a lot. She served and volleyed every first serve at Wimbledon.

‘I’m certain now that, after the last two months working with Amelie, I can significantly improve my game. Unless I win a Grand Slam with Amelie, people will say that it wasn’t successful or that she is not a good coach. I know the reality.

Murray works on his game with former French player Mauresmo ahead of the Australian Open earlier this year

Mauresmo watches on as former Wimbledon champion Murray practices his service game

Towards the end of her career Mauresmo won Wimbledon (left) and the Australian Open

‘I had great success with Ivan Lendl. Was he a perfect coach? No. Was he a very good coach? Yeah. He had some very strong qualities and some things that weren’t so good. Amelie, likewise, has some very strong qualities. Amelie was the best in the world at what she did and to be the best in the world at what you do in anything, you have to have strong mental characteristics.

‘She went through a lot as a person as well and she handled a lot of the issues that she had during her career very well. She was seen as being a choker. People would call her that. Even though she was No 1 in the world. But she got through that and won a couple of majors. So mentally, I think she is extremely strong.’

Those who had doubted the wisdom of Murray’s hiring of the Frenchwoman claimed vindication last November when he was trounced 6-0, 6-1 by Roger Federer in an ATP Tour Finals round-robin match that knocked him out of the tournament at London’s O2 Arena. Murray lost the match but Mauresmo took the hit.

‘I was shocked at the criticism she took after the O2,’ says Murray. ‘There was no questioning of anyone else in my team. There were some people questioning me, but a lot of it was about how it was Amelie’s fault. They were saying I was confused and I had no identity and that she was no good, basically.

Murray reacts with disappointment during his humiliation by Roger Federer at the ATP Finals in November

Murray reveals he could not understand the criticism levelled at Mauresmo for the crushing defeat

‘I didn’t get it. I hadn’t seen that with any of the other super-coaches or the ex-players. I hadn’t seen people saying “Michael Chang is rubbish” or “Ivan Lendl is rubbish” or [Stefan] Edberg or [Boris] Becker.

‘Since then, Amelie put me in the position where I was competing for a Grand Slam again. I was in a great position in Melbourne and I messed up. It wasn’t her that messed up or my team. With female coaches in tennis, it’ll start happening more. If this is a successful relationship, people will look at it and try to copy because that is how the world works. When someone is doing something well, people follow.’

Andy Murray is not dour. He is not weird, or strange, or miserable. He is not any of the lazy labels people seek to put on him in the way they once sought to tie them to Mauresmo. His problem, if you want to call it that, is that he distrusts superficiality and he refuses to disguise that distrust. To some of us, that makes him one of the most likeable British sportsmen there has been for a long time.

He is 27 now and in some ways, he is settling down. He does not allow himself to become as agitated by the interest in his personal life as he once did.

Murray's fiancee Kim Sears, pictured during the Australian Open final, wears a parental advisory top after her alleged expletive-laden rant during the semi-final was heavily reported

Murray has learned to accept that Sears will be in the spotlight during tournaments

Sears arrives to watch Murray play in the Aegon Championships at Queens last June

When it is mentioned that he and Kim recently announced their wedding date (next month at the Cromlix House Hotel that Murray owns in Dunblane), Murray smiles. ‘We didn’t announce the date,’ he says. ‘The Sun did that for us, which was nice of them.

‘When I am around tennis and Kim is there, I can understand they want to take pictures or show her on the big screen. But when I go home, I don’t want to have photographers following us when we are going to walk the dogs.

‘But it’s part and parcel of what goes with it now. It doesn’t mean you have to really enjoy it. But I know how to deal with it, whereas when I was younger I had no idea how to deal with that. I try to laugh now about it. Whereas it used to irritate me when things were reported incorrectly, I don’t take it as seriously as I did. It’s harder for the people around me because they still take it to heart a little bit.’ For Murray, one area that crossed a line came when some motivational notes he had taken on to court with him at the Rotterdam Open earlier this month were posted on Twitter.

‘People watch me on court and say, “He needs to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist”,’ says Murray. ‘I get asked about it all the time and I have said, “Yeah, I have seen psychologists and I have worked with a psychiatrist”. I don’t know if that’s too open. I don’t need to tell anyone I’m doing that. But then some of the stuff I am working on or doing when I am on the court, that’s a private thing.

The Scot reveals that he learned to deal with the interest in his private life now he is older

Murray was left upset when motivational notes he was reading on court during the Rotterdam Open in February were leaked

Murray was dumped out of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships after defeat by Borna Coric

The British No 1 crumbled to the Croatian teenager in one hour and 19 minutes

‘Mental health is a private matter. I talk to the relevant people about it but I don’t want everyone to know what my notes are or what’s in . . . anyone who keeps a diary, well, it’s a bit embarrassing if someone goes and shows your diary to everyone. I didn’t like that. There are limits.’

Before he gets up to go, Murray mentions that Kim is due to stop by. Life’s good. The Australian Open suggested that he is happier, and happier on the court, too. The pursuit of Federer, Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, three of the greatest tennis players ever to grace the game, has resumed.

‘I have had to ask myself what can I do to try to close that gap,’ says Murray, who will drop two places to world No 5 on Monday after his surprising quarter-final loss in Dubai last week. ‘On that day in Melbourne, mentally, I should have been a bit stronger. But these guys are incredible. I have continually had to try to improve to keep up with them because they keep getting better. They don’t seem to get worse.’

Murray doesn’t mention that he is one of The Incredibles of modern men’s tennis, too. That is not his style. But he already has two Grand Slams to his name and the way he played in Australia seemed to provide evidence that, reinvigorated and reassured by his partnership with Mauresmo, more are a possibility.

In the first line of that note photographed in Rotterdam, Murray urged his on-court alter ego ‘Be Good to Yourself’. Maybe now, as his life enters a new phase, that will begin to get a little easier.

ANDY MURRAY RESUMES DAVIS CUP ACTION Andy Murray resumes his Davis Cup career next Friday for the first time since he voiced support for Scottish independence. Despite the wailing and the angst that greeted his tweet on the eve of the poll last September, Murray’s commitment to playing for Great Britain is beyond doubt. He has won 19 Davis Cup singles rubbers and lost only two and on Friday he will anchor the British side again as they attempt to win their eagerly anticipated World Group first-round match against the USA in Glasgow. ‘When I compete for GB, I absolutely love it,’ said Murray. ‘My results when I have competed for GB since I was 12 would suggest that. ‘When I represented Britain in the Olympics, I played maybe the best tournament of my life. I love competing for my country. I don’t think any differently about Great Britain after what has happened.’ When Murray voiced an opinion about the vote, there were many who were grateful that a high-profile sportsman had the courage to comment on something important. ‘I got asked about it almost daily in the six or seven months before it and I had been told not to say anything but I wanted to say something. I said at the time was that the people of Scotland will make the right decision. Just because I think one way doesn’t mean it’s the right way for Scotland.’ Murray has often pointed out that the idea he does not like the English is absurd. It has been rendered more absurd by the fact he is marrying an Englishwoman next month. ‘The whole notion that I don’t like English people is nonsense,’ he said. ‘I work with English people on a daily basis. I am going to get married to one. I live here. It is just nonsense. That’s the thing that upsets me the most about it. Some of my family are English. I am also getting married to an Englishwoman so my in-laws are all English.’ Advertisement