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[Alireza Murray]

Pre-US

09 March, 2010 | 12:03

They might be in the Coachella valley getting ready for the Indian Wells Masters 1000, but training for Andy and his team started last week in the UK
He spoke a while back about hitting as many balls as possible, and he managed a fair amount with a variety of hitting partners at the NTC and elsewhere.

Amongst them was Colin Fleming, at the NTC before flying out to Lithuania on GB duty.
With Flembo looking to get his eye in ahead of the Davis Cup tie, Andy stepped in on some doubles drills, and t worked perfectly for both players - Andy getting the chance to nail a load of volleys, and Colin the same.

These guys have known each other for ages, so the banter was flying around. it might have been practice but they went at it pretty hard. They were both pretty solid to be fair.

The Davis Cup team flew out to Lithuania the next day, but they managed to keep across what was happening on laptops back in the UK. Andy and his team huddled around a laptop before practice on the Friday to catch the start of Wardy's match.

And the laptop stayed courtside throughout the morning practice session, only to be looked at when the situation allowed. Like when grips need changing. Andy's very particular about his...

With Davis Cup in full swing, it fell to some of the younger guys to make up the hitting partners. The likes of Pauffley, Ward (below) and Smethurst maybe just off the radar at the moment, but they came in and worked really hard.

Hopefully they'll have got a lot out of the three or four sessions they spent on court with Andy, and the same goes for him.

Alongside hitting thousands of tennis balls, there was the inevitable gym work. This US stretch is a long one - one of the longest trips of the year - so the body needs to be strong.

So once the tennis was done in the morning, they'd have lunch before Andy hit the gym for an hour or so in the afternoon. If you're wondering what this is called, it's a 'woodchop.'
Very good for tennis players apparently....