Murray shrugs off rankings slide on the back of Miami misery

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The British number one's second-round exit to Mario Ancic at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami will send him plummeting from 13th to a position outside the top 20.

He loses the bulk of the ranking-points haul which came with reaching the Miami semi-finals last year.

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Hitting back: Murray has vowed to turn his game around

But the Scot's miserable form on clay last year, plus an agonising injury absence which forced him out of the French Open and Wimbledon, means he hardly has any points to defend from now until the US Open at the end of August and every match he wins will move him in the right direction.

Murray, who lost in the fourth round of the Masters Series event at Indian Wells earlier in March, has won tournaments this year in Doha and Marseille.

And his Champions Race standing - based on his performance in 2008 rather than on the rolling 12-monthly basis on which the world rankings are compiled - was a healthy sixth before Miami, suggesting there is little to worry about.

"I said a couple of months ago that the Race was the ranking that I was going to look at this year," Murray said.

"I knew my (world) ranking was going to go up and down a bit.

"I obviously would have liked to have done better here and at Indian Wells, but I didn't. I lost a couple of tight matches.

"I've got a long time now before I have to think about points or anything like that. Obviously, my ranking's going to drop a bit now, but I've got a long time until I've got to defend points again."

Murray did not win a match on clay last year, losing to Gilles Simon in Rome and then retiring hurt at Hamburg, against Filippo Volandri.

He hopes to improve his record on the surface, and has a fortnight to get to grips with the clay before starting that key part of his season.

"Playing Valencia is my first tournament on the clay," said 20-year-old Murray. "I've hardly played any matches the last 18 months on clay.

"So I have to practice a lot, get used to the moving again. (I will) maybe go to Barcelona to train for a little bit, but maybe take a couple of days off here and there and then get back.

"Hopefully I'll be refreshed and feeling good for the clay-court stretch, because I think it's a surface that I can play well on. But I need to make sure I'm well prepared."