After plodding his way through the first half of the year with little to show for it, world No. 8 Andy Murray appeared to have gotten over his injuries late in the season, after he took part in a cramped six week run on the tour that included title wins in Shenzhen, Valencia and Vienna in order to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Final.

While the year-end championships proved to be a painful experience for Murray, he vowed to spend the majority of his off-season in training to prepare himself for 2015. He also agreed to take part in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) in the event’s debut year.

The event is being promoted as a groundbreaking team tennis tournament that will also air on Pay-Per-View (PPV).

“I like the format. Tennis is an individual sport and you don’t get to interact with others during your matches that much. When I was younger I used to play a lot of football, and I always enjoyed being part of a team, so being able to have that feeling of being part of a team again will be good,” Murray said.

“Attracting new fans to the sport is important and I’m looking forward to helping take tennis somewhere new. The IPTL format is something that has never been done before and there are many different aspects that make it interesting,” added Murray.

Murray will compete for the Manila ‘Mavericks’, alongside Maria Sharapova, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kirsten Flipkens, Daniel Nestor and Carlos Moya.

“Playing in Manila will be fun. The fans there don’t get to see a lot of live tennis, so that will be good. With the season being so busy, it can be difficult to take a holiday so you don’t often get to travel anywhere different to the countries on the tour,”