From Sky Sports:

Andy Murray says he will approach the US Open with a new perspective after winning the tournament last year.

The 26-year-old won his first major at Flushing Meadows before triumphing at Wimbledon last month. Instead of trying to win majors, he's now preparing to defend them.

"It's a new experience, so I don't know how I'm going to respond," said Murray.

"You know, I'm staying in the same hotel as last year, and I'll try and stick to a similar sort of schedule and try and get comfortable there as soon as I arrive in New York. I'm looking forward to it."

Energy

"I get excited always for the Grand Slams, and there's some pressures that you can deal with well and some you don't.

"Hopefully, this will be one that I deal with well. I've always enjoyed playing in New York. I hope I've got the energy there and the desire to have a good tournament."

Murray will compete at this week's Cincinnati Masters, which he won in 2008 and 2011 but lost in the round of 16 last year, and the Scot wouldn't speculate on his chances of a third success.

"I don't really know," he said. "I mean, sometimes I played really well here and sometimes I haven't. I need to try and get some matches in because that would help for the US Open.

"Last year I didn't play particularly well in the two warm-up tournaments. I only played one match in Canada and two matches here and I won the US Open. So I'm not putting loads of pressure on myself this week."

http://www1.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/8868195/andy-murray-looking-forward-to-opening-us-open-title-defence

The scheduling is crazy. Murray needs to decide if he's going to be a singles player or a doubles It was okay in the past when he was climbing up the rankings but now he's nearly at the top, he needs to be single minded

I think he is being single minded- the only reason he's playing dubs is for match practice to sharpen himself up for the singles, and next week, and the USO.

I quite like the draw. He's got an excellent chance of making the final at least. I'd quite like him to give Dimitrov a lesson- I don't dislike him but he's got a LONG way to go to live up to the hype around him.

When he beat Berdych in the semi I was in the Olympic Stadium watching the Paralympics and following the match point by point on my phone. A few minutes after the end of the match the stadium announcer came on and told everyone that he'd got to the final and he got almost the biggest cheer of the night, except Oscar Pistorius *sob*.

I think you're probably right, and I'm glad, but at the same time sad. I'd love to see him actually there- I know it's not important in the scheme of things but I like anything that celebrates Andy and he deserves every second of it!

That raises an interesting question actually- if Andy really does want to push his image in the way Bhupathi says (seems a bit incongruous to me but I'm sure Bhapathi knows him better!), do you think he'll interrupt his December training block to come and collect his SPOTY award? I'm assuming he'll win it of course but I think that's pretty much a given. I've already warned everyone I know that I'll disown them if they don't vote for him! But it's a serious question. Training block v. high profile and important award- which will he choose?

I went on a cruise a few years ago and stopped at Kusadasi. I really liked it there. We had a tour around Ephesus which was fascinating, and then a talk about carpets- we didn't buy as we'd spent all our money on the cruise! They also served coffee so strong that my husband was shaking like a leaf for about six hours. I didn't dare try it!

There are some photos of our day in Kusadasi here if you would like to look:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115294676849881092469/albums/5516069600872783233

I've always thought that if you painted Roger green and put him in a pointy hat he'd look exactly like the Wicked Witch of the West.

I love the second one and I love the song, and I know that it's good that he lost last year, but still. I'd be happy to live my life never seeing another picture or video clip from that final, ever again.

He often retweets odd and random stuff. I wouldn't read too much into it. He could be referring to coach / player relationships!

I'm so glad Andy didn't fall over on his back when he won the way Federer and Nadal always do. It's getting old now and feels forced. Also it makes them grubby.

My favourite, no contest, is serving at Championship Point at Wimbledon. Fantastic serve, block return from Djokovic, flat forehand from Andy, and a backhand into the net from Djokovic. It might not be the best finesse he's ever shown but to play that point in that situation, with that pressure and that outcome- it'll never be beaten, ever.

I just ordered my stamps too We have the framed Olympic sets so I might well so something similar with these.

I don't think I'll ever get bored of reading about it and watching video either. And it's going to be a very, very long time before my computer wallpaper is anything other than Andy holding that trophy!

I don't know if this has been posted before? I haven't seen it. The official Wimbledon news report:

We should have known. This of all Wimbledon fortnights, we should have known the evidence was overwhelmingly in favour of a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 straight sets win for Andy Murray - because before this match began, surely nobody at all believed that would be the outcome. Novak Djokovic was playing too well, was too outstanding a No.1 to be overcome. He lost his epic semi-final against Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros only because he came up against a clay court freak of nature. Moreover, Murray’s form at Wimbledon was patchy, and the weight of domestic expectation must surely burden him. The one result we could rule out with certainty was a straight sets triumph for the Scot. Therefore at Wimbledon 2013, the most fascinating Championships there may ever have been, that very scoreline became the absolutely inevitable outcome.

It was 5.24pm when an immense silence engulfed the Centre Court crowd. Three agonising Championship points had escaped Murray’s grasp, and now he had earned a fourth by rescuing a rally he should have lost. He did not know it, but this was his time. Sometimes very wonderful things do happen, and we spend most of our lives in the hope of them. At long last, never again would it be repeated ad nauseam that no Briton has won the men’s Wimbledon title since Fred Perry in 1936. Destiny was at Murray’s shoulder, and this would be history.

Moments later the air was torn apart by a roar like no other. All his life Murray will have thought of this moment... the moment of becoming Wimbledon champion. Last autumn in the nano-second that he knew he had won the US Open, it was so overwhelming he almost did not know what to do. This time, when Wimbledon 2013 became the second Grand Slam title of his career, he knew exactly how to respond.

The racket – his weapon – flew from his hand and he turned to the crowd with a smile as wide as the sky, fists clenched, arms aloft. It was not his players’ box that he looked toward – not his family and friends and coaches, who were falling into one another’s arms, while his mother Judy sobbed uncontrollably. It was the crowd with whom Murray first celebrated, walking towards utter strangers, so he could exchange high-fives with the first half-dozen. And then the scale of his achievement made his head spin with disbelief, and he stumbled away. He moved to embrace Djokovic – superlatively graceful in defeat – and then sank to the turf, all strength deserting him, kneeling, his head on the ground as if in prayer. On this most public of stages, it was an intensely private moment.

He staggered to his feet, looking skywards, covering his face, shaking his head. Fifteen thousand people in the Centre Court cauldron were bellowing his name. Two minutes went by before he reached the umpire’s chair to shake Mohamed Lahyani’s hand. He began to reel towards his players’ box but was overcome again and sank to his knees, covering his face, tears very near. By now the presentation party was all but ready, yet only now could Murray summon the strength to reach the people he cares about the most. Making the time-honoured climb to the players’ box, he embraced them all, an acknowledgment of a debt repaid by all sides to all others.

Murray was preparing to leave when he “heard a squealing behind me” and saw his mother Judy, who had not sat in the box throughout the match. Mother and son, coach and protégé, held one another close before Murray tottered back to his chair where he sat staring about him in plain disbelief. He did not stop shaking his head until his fingertips touched the golden trophy. If his eyes saw the inscription upon the ancient cup, he will have read the words: “All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Championship of the World.” It is the very grail of tennis, and it belongs to Andy Murray.

“No, I didn’t always feel this day was going to happen,” he said afterwards, his voice still tremulous with incredulity. “It’s incredibly difficult to win these events. It takes so much hard work and mental toughness. And it’s really hard to be the standard-bearer of British tennis at Wimbledon. Very tough, very stressful, a lot of pressure. It’s everywhere you go because of how big this event is, but also because of the history and no Brit having won. I think now it will become easier. I hope it will.

“Before the final game I was thinking where I was going to put my first serve, because often when you’re serving for matches the first point of that game is crucial. Then I won the first three points – and it was the hardest game ever, the hardest few points I ever played. At the end of the match I didn’t quite know what was going on. It’s been a blur from then to now. Winning Wimbledon is the pinnacle of tennis.”

Then he shook his head, just as he had in the first moments of his victory.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I can’t believe it.”

I re-watched the last few minutes of the match and the aftermatch on iPlayer the other day. My heart rate went crazy during that last game, still! And when Sue Barker said "I don't know if you realise what you've done" I teared up. I wonder if he does, yet? I hope so!