Curse of Qatar no worry for Murray

More meaningfully, Murray should be up to ninth in the rankings when the computer spits out its first weekly listing of the year, courtesy of winning the $1million Qatar Open.

A three-set triumph over Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in the biggest tournament of the opening week gives Murray an early lead and certainly establishes him in the top five contenders at Melbourne Park.

His status is well earned after an eclectic sequence of victories in the Emirates.

There was sheer brilliance at times during his first three matches which all saw him reel off love sets. Then there was a more clinical dismantling of the arch scuffler Nikolay Davydenko and finally the conquering of some nerves in the final when he managed to subdue the impressive Wawrinka. So it was pretty much the perfect start to 2008 but before his followers get swept away on a tide of euphoria, it is worth recalling that success in Qatar is no guarantee of glory in Australia.

An examination of the record books shows that players who top up what are often sizeable appearance fees in the Middle East en route to Melbourne can easily come a cropper soon afterwards, despite their confidence having been boosted.

Maybe it is a consequence of having only a week to overcome the jet lag but of the 15 prior winners in Qatar since its inception in 1993, seven have gone on to lose in the first round of the Australian Open.

Only four have got past the fourth round — Stefan Edberg made the semi-finals in 1994 and Roger Federer the same stage three years ago. It was the last time he failed to win a Grand Slam outside Paris.

Qatar title winners have twice gone on to win in Melbourne — the inevitable Federer success in 2006 and the more surprising figure of Petr Korda in 1998.

Tim Henman reached the final of Qatar twice and both times went out in the third round of the following Grand Slam, part of what became a wretched record Down Under.

But Murray has already shown that his potential outreaches that of Henman and there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that he will go the same way as the less-than magnificent seven who flopped in Melbourne after doing so well in Doha.

By more than defending his points from last year, when he reached the final, he has achieved his immediate ranking goal for 2008, as he explained.

"It was important for me to make the final so I could get a seed inside the top 12 for Australia," he said. "If you are 13 to 16 you get to draw one of the top four in the fourth round and you don't want that."

The draw will be made on Friday and regardless of being seeded ninth, he will be among the top five players others want to avoid. The others are Federer, Rafael Nadal (despite being thrashed by Mikhail Youzhny in Chennai yesterday), Novak Djokovic and David Nalbandian, who had a storming end to 2007 when he twice beat the world No 1.

Murray looks contented among his assorted coaching and back-up crew, having ditched Brad Gilbert. The new entourage's biggest challenge is yet to come in helping try to unpick opponents at one of the four biggest tournaments of the year.

Team Murray will soon have a look at the likes of Federer and Andy Roddick, part of the eight-man field making up the exhibition tournament in Melbourne that he will play in, starting on Wednesday.

Three unofficial matches are guaranteed there and then it is abruptly into the deadly serious business next Monday.