Wimbledon Betting / Ralph Ellis / 16 June 2010 /

Andy Murray has once again turned his back on GB's Davis Cup team and this time the reason is more absurd than ever. With an early exit at Wimbledon looking likely, Murray's career is going nowhere fast, says Ralph Ellis.

If only Andy Murray could generate as much spin off his racquet as he does in his PR. Britain's number one has come up with an amazing reason why he won't play in the Davis Cup for his country - he says he's "giving the other guys a chance to win".

Now if it was Robert Green suggesting he was doing everybody a favour by making himself unavailable for selection you could possibly understand it. But how exactly does it help Britain if the one bloke who should be guaranteed to put a couple of points on the board to prevent us losing to Turkey, and thus being relegated to the "god knows where" division, chooses not to turn up? With Alex Bogdanovic also refusing to play in protest at not being given even more help by the LTA, it leaves world number 259 Jamie Baker as the star man of new captain Leon Smith's first team.

Murray plans to take a break after Wimbledon before the ATP circuit starts again in August, and let's make one thing clear. He's doing that for the good of Andy Murray, and not out of some misguided sense of patriotism.

My big worry is that he might find his break is even longer than planned because on current form I'm not sure he'll even get into the second week at SW19. He's third favourite for the title at [11.5] and that's one you can lay all day long.

This was meant to be the Scot's breakthrough year, and when he reached the final of the Australian Open there were so many positive signs. But his reaction to that defeat was alarming. Instead of taking progress to the final as the springboard to get even better, it seemed he sulked at getting beaten. He turned up for his next tournament in Dubai completely under-prepared and out of condition, and hasn't got back his best form since.

Now even John McEnroe, who has been one of Murray's strongest supporters, is writing off his chances not just for Wimbledon but the rest of the year. Mac arrived in London yesterday for his BBC work and was typically honest when asked to discuss the chances of some British success at SW19.

"From what I hear both Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) are working very hard off the court to maintain their conditioning. I'm a little more worried about Andy because I think he would have wanted to do a little bit more leading up to this Wimbledon," he told the Daily Mail's Mike Dickson.

It's as short as [1.1] in Betfair's market that Murray won't win a Grand Slam this season, and it's not hard to see why. It's all very well for the likes of Federer - and before him Sampras - to pick and choose their events and target themselves around the big tournaments, but they earned the right to do that by bringing their 100 per cent focus to every competition, every week, before they began to collect Grand Slam titles. Murray has got to get back to that same level of drive and intensity, and he should have been looking at the Davis Cup as a chance to collect some easy and enjoyable boosts to his morale rather than a nuisance.

Five things you might not know about Jamie Baker

Born in August 1986 in Glasgow, he started playing tennis aged four because dad Gordon and mum Lynne both belonged to the local tennis club. Older brother Steven works in banking

As a boy he was close friends with both Jamie and Andy Murray, but the friendship has drifted. "If you call or text someone, and these messages are not returned, how many do you send until you stop?" he said.

He reached the last eight in junior Wimbledon in 2004

When Pete Sampras was preparing for his 2007 comeback to the Outback Champions Series he picked Baker out as a future star and invited him to practice at his Florida home.

While in Florida two years ago he suffered a rare virus that caused bruising all over his body even though nothing had happened. Doctors warned him any bang on the head could have been fatal

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