BNP Paribas Masters Betting: The Lendl legacy that has brought Murray back to his best

Celebrations in Valencia for Andy Murray... and there could be more to come

Andy Murray's roller coaster year looks like ending on a high as he searches this week for a place in the ATP World Tour finals. Ralph Ellis is backing him to do more than just qualify for the O2...

Andy Murray got his first Grand Slam titles out of working with Ivan Lendl, but he also got something more. He got to understand that his body works best when he's playing regularly, and not when he's trying to pick and choose his tournaments.

It was Lendl who convinced him to enter more minor competitions to get himself used to the feeling of winning every day. When he came to the big occasions at the Olympics and Wimbledon he'd learned how to handle the whole process.

Lendl might have long ago been consigned to Murray's long list of former coaches, but his legacy remains and might just be about to give the Scot a wonderful end to a topsy turvy season.

When Murray beat Tommy Robredo on Sunday night in a gruelling Valencia Open final which lasted three hours and 20 minutes it was his 20th match in five weeks. He'd started the process trying to win himself a place in the top eight to help his seeding at the start of next year - he'd ended it by rediscovering that winning breeds winning.

It means he is going into this week's BNP Paribas Masters with a completely different agenda. Only a few days ago he'd have expected his aim was to do well enough to qualify for the ATP World Tour finals in London. Now he'll be looking at landing odds of 13.5n/a to add yet another title to his recent collection.

Murray only needs to reach the quarter-finals to make it to the multi-million end of season jamboree at the O2 Arena, and starts on the quest by playing veteran Frenchman Julian Benneteau on Wednesday afternoon. He's 1.351/3 to make that one more win in his remarkable end of season sequence, and for all that the world number 28 is a dangerous opponent it's hard to see that he won't get through.

The Scot was talking on Tuesday about his recovery from that epic final against Robredo, extolling the benefits of his ice bath straight after the match was over. He looked and sounded refreshed and ready to go again.

"My body is getting used to playing matches and recovering well, which at the beginning of the year wasn't the case," he said. "In my first event in January I was in bits after playing for an hour."

In short, he isn't just fit but match fit and that might give him a serious advantage against the other big guns lined up in Paris. Novak Djokovic has gone through an inconsistent spell, suggesting he's allowed the twin pressures of marriage and fatherhood to chip at his normally ferocious training regimes. Meanwhile Roger Federer's attempts to defy the years have often failed at the final hurdles.

Murray is a man who has found once more the joy of playing, of knowing he can trust his back to let him hit shots that a year ago were causing him agony. When he was last in Paris for the French Open he didn't have the stamina to survive. This week is a very different matter.