Goran gets behind Murray

Goran Ivanisevic told skysports.com that Andy Murray is ready to win a grand slam tournament next year, as long as he believes in his own game.

The Croatian star has been watching Murray at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and is of the opinion that he can not only win the tournament at the O2 Arena, but also go on to land a major prize.

British number one Murray has been as high as two in the world rankings, and has reached the US Open final and Wimbledon semis in the last two years, but has not yet taken that final step.

Ivanisevic likes what he sees from Murray, and believes that he is already established as among the best in the world and just needs to keep on going to land a grand slam event.

"Every year can be his year, he is definitely ready to win a grand slam," Ivanisevic told skysports.com. "He proved it last year getting to the final of US Open and this year getting to the semis of Wimbledon.

Ready

"I know you guys want him to win it sometime, but I think he is ready, he believes he is ready. When he'll do it I don't know, but one day he will do it for sure."

Ivanisevic himself knocked on the door a few times before eventually winning Wimbledon in 2001, and he says belief will be a big factor for Murray going forward.

"In my case I was favourite to win Wimbledon in 1992 and I lost, when I won in 2001 I went in as a wildcard and I was happy just to win a round.

"Murray doesn't have to do anything different, he just has to play good tennis and I believe he can do it. If he believes and if he is confident he can do it, he's already established himself as one of the best players at the moment and he just has to believe.

"There's a lot of pressure on him because you only have one British player in the top ten, first it was Tim Henman and then along came Andy Murray. But he's been good at handling pressure so far so I think he'll be ok."

Rafa rebound

Ivanisevic also backed Rafael Nadal to bounce back next season after his failure in London capped a poor end to the season for the former world number one.

"His form has not been good since the French Open, he was struggling with injuries, struggling with form and he's not been the same player so I wasn't surprised he was beaten by Soderling and Davydenko.

"Hopefully he can come back next year and be the same player he was at the start of the year. He only slipped down from first to second, not down to 500! He's young, he's a great competitor and a great guy so I think he's going to come back."

The patriotic Ivanisevic is also backing fellow Croat Marin Cilic to be in the mix with the big names next season.

"In my case it is a Croatian guy Cilic, he's young and is number 14 at the moment and next year I think he should be deep in the top ten, so remember the name Marin Cilic who's already a great tennis player but next year will be even better."