Wimbledon Betting / Ralph Ellis / 15 June 2011 /

There were signs during and after his Queen's win over Jo Wilfried-Tsonga that Andy Murray is enjoying his tennis and life as a whole. With Wimbledon starting next week, that's a good state of mind to be in, says Ralph Ellis.

Andy Murray says the only person he's ever seen perform the "hot dog" at Wimbledon was Goran Ivanisevic. Well I rather hope that the cheeky between -the-legs forehand which helped him beat Jo Wilfried Tsonga for the Queen's Club title wasn't the only example he's taken from the giant Croatian.

Regular readers will know I'm not Murray's biggest fan. I've always felt he looks too easily for excuses. He employs coaches then sacks them if he doesn't like what they say. He seems to have constant injuries to give himself an excuse. He's never seemed ready to commit to the grind of the Tour, the constant pursuit of one win after another which marks out the most successful champions.

But this summer there seems the beginnings of a change. Yes, I know we had the inevitable daily bulletins about his ankle injury during the French Open and again in the first few days at Queen's. But that "hot dog" seemed to mark a substantial shift in his attitude on court and the pictures of him with the trophy after his victory contained one thing we've never seen from Murray - a huge, beaming smile.

Ivanisevic, of course, is the only person to have won Wimbledon after starting the tournament with a wild card. It was in 2001, when he was coming back from assorted injuries. Three times a beaten finalist before then, three times destroyed by nerves, he suddenly loosened up and loved every minute of being on court. It made all the difference.

There are signs beyond extravagant trick shots that Murray might have found the same key to success. He's revealed in today's papers that his preparation for Monday's rain-delayed final was disrupted when the burglar alarm went off at his Surrey mansion in the early hours. Clad only in his boxer shorts, he grabbed a tennis racquet from beside his bed and went in search of the intruder - thankfully to discover it was merely a fault with the alarm system.

Unable to get back to sleep he sat up watching the NBA finals - but was fresh enough on the day as he clawed his way back from a bad opening to beat the Frenchman in three sets.

If at 24 he's finally learning how to see the funny side of things that disrupt his preparation, it could be good news. Winning the Aegon tournament has brought his Wimbledon odds in from [11] to [7.8], but that's still the best value of the big four and there's an argument that his mindset has always been the one thing stopping him beating any of them at the tournament where it matters most.

Murray was brave enough when he thought there were intruders at his home. "I thought I needed to be all macho. A tennis racquet in the right hands can be dangerous," he said. If he's a bit less macho, and a bit more relaxed, it might prove even more dangerous on the courts at SW19. And if he can change his attitude, well maybe I can too!

Five things you might not know about Goran Ivanisevic

1.Born in September 1971 in Split, then in Yugoslavia but now Croatia's second city behind capital Zagreb, he was named after his mother Gorana, a chemical engineer.

2.He started playing tennis as a boy on one of the courts at his grandfather's huge home near the vineyards he tended. When his talent emerged his dad Srdjan, a professor in engineering at the local university, sold his own house and moved the family into a tiny apartment to fund coaching for Goran

3.An active spokesman for his homeland during the Balkan war, he convinced the ATP Tour to list him as a Croatian, rather than a Yugoslav, before the new country had even been officially recognised

4.He has a tattoo on his back with a shark, a cross and a rose. He says: "A cross is a cross, a rose like love and a shark is a pretty tough animal".

5.In 2007, three years after retiring, he helped Roger Federer prepare for his fifth Wimbledon title by pretending to be Rafa Nadal in a practice session before the final.

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