Triumph Over Djokovic That Turned the Tide

We only guessed it at the time, but it now looks certain that Andy Murray's win over Novak Djokovic in the Toronto Masters last July will go down as one of the biggest turning points of his career.

Murray had begun 2008 ranked 11 in the world and, despite tournament victories in Qatar and Marseille before February was out, had nudged up only two places by the end of Wimbledon in early July.

His defeat by Rafael Nadal in a Wimbledon quarter-final in which he won only nine games left him with a sorry-looking 4-0 record against the Spaniard, exactly the same as his record against Djokovic. His failure to make any impact against two contemporaries who would be his career-long rivals - if anything, he seemed to be losing ground on them - overshadowed the fact that he had registered wins over Roger Federer.

It was after his post-Wimbledon break that Murray made the step up that some had started to think we might never see. With the clay and grass-court seasons behind him, he confirmed his early-year form with three hugely significant results on North American hard courts, his best surface.

First he picked off Djokovic in Toronto and Cincinnati and then won an outstanding semi-final against Nadal in the US Open in New York. "It's a big win mentally for me," Murray said of the first of his wins over Djokovic. It also answered questions about his strength and stamina.

If we had not been entirely convinced by the very public biceps flex after he beat Richard Gasquet in five sets at Wimbledon, Murray's tireless pursuit of the ball and resilience against Djokovic in Toronto gave us the first real indication that here was a complete player whose exceptional aptitude for the game had never really been in doubt.