Andy Murray’s resolve to work his way back from hip surgery is ingrained in his desire to ensure that the latter stages of his career are played on his terms. As he prepares to play just his seventh tournament in the past 18 months at next week’s Brisbane International, the Scot says he is determined to not let injury define his remaining seasons.

“I owe it to myself to give myself a chance to get back to the level that I’m happy competing at… I want to go out on my own terms. If I stopped six months ago or not given the hip time to recover, I may look back and regret that decision,” he said Friday.

Murray, 31, was speaking to media in Brisbane after earlier in the day practising with Grigor Dimitrov. This time last year Murray arrived at the season opener hopeful of returning to the tour after a six-month injury layoff. But he withdrew from the event and underwent right hip surgery in early January. By the time he returned to the tour in June at Queen’s, he’d been away from tournament play for 11 months.

Murray had a modest 7-5 win-loss record in 2018, with the best showing of his six tournament appearances being a quarter-final run in Cincinnati. He missed the final five weeks of the 2018 season with an ankle injury and in October and November Murray spent around six weeks working in Philadelphia with sports rehab specialist Bill Knowles.

“As I’ve gotten older, and with the last 12 months, I can’t believe how quickly things can change,” Murray said. “When I first had issues with the hip I was No. 1 in the world and 12 months later I was struggling. I thought I had time on my side. There’s nothing I’d rather do more than stay out on tour. I love the practice, the competition, the locker room. I want to play as long as I can. There are still things I want to achieve. Whether I am capable of doing that or not, we’ll see.”

At No. 256 in the ATP Rankings, Murray is using his protected ranking of No. 2 to enter Brisbane. But that ranking can’t be used for seedings, meaning Murray could draw any of the top eight seeds – including Rafael Nadal – in the early rounds. But the 31-year-old is focused on finding a way to regain form, win some matches if possible, and start enjoying tennis again.

“I have to be smart with how I train and manage [the hip] as best I can. Last year I was in more pain than I am now. It was a hard year in which I went through a lot, but I had to accept that pain was something I had to deal with. This time I’m trying to enjoy myself. I missed playing here and I’m going to go out and compete as hard as I can.”

Did You Know?
Andy Murray has spent 41 weeks as World No. 1 during his career. See the No. 1 weeks leaderboard

John Millman enjoyed the best season of his career in 2018, climbing as high as World No. 33. Perhaps the Australian’s two biggest highlights were reaching his first ATP Tour final in Budapest and defeating Roger Federer at the US Open to reach the quarter-finals. That’s not bad for someone who had not previously finished higher than No. 84 in the year-end ATP Rankings.

But while the 29-year-old is happy with his year, that doesn’t mean he is ready to slow down.

“I still feel like I’ve got a little bit more improvement to come and I feel like next season can be even better hopefully,” Millman said. “Touch wood, the body holds together and I’m looking forward to putting myself up against the best players in the world. That’s what you want to do, that’s why you play tennis.”

Judging by his performance in 2018, it would be tough to tell that Millman has missed a lot of time on the court over the years due to injury. In February 2017, Millman underwent the third major surgery of his career, that one on his groin. Staying healthy was a big victory for the grinding baseliner in 2018, and his great results were a nice bonus.

“For him to finish where he finished was incredible. What he did at the US Open was fantastic,” said former World No. 8 Mark Philippoussis. “It was a hell of a year, so hopefully he can continue that and stay healthy, and then who knows how far he can go.”

Millman, who is known for his work ethic and how hard he competes, took some time off after his career year. But it didn’t take long for him to get back to work, joining a group of Aussies that was led by former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and legendary coach Tony Roche to prepare for the new year.

“The Australian Open conditions are some of the toughest of the year and not just that, I think it’s important when you can to lay a foundation and this is the best opportunity to do so, to lay a foundation right now. This is the time to do it,” Millman said. “I think that Australians are really lucky to train here in the conditions where we start off the season and I think we’re really making the most of it.”

It’s always important to start the year on a high note. But it’s even more critical for Millman, as he wants to show his family and friends at home his very best.

“I want to put on the best show I possibly can because this is a real opportunity where my friends and family get to come and watch me play. You want to go out there and you want to do them proud,” Millman said. “The way I can do that is to compete as hard as I can and play really good tennis. So definitely that’s in the back of your mind when you’re out here training and you’re doing everything possible to put yourself in the best physical and mental shape.”

With the season ready to begin and the hard work behind him, Millman is in a different place. With health on his side and the momentum of an impressive 2018 campaign that earned him a nomination for ATP Comeback Player of the Year, all Millman has to worry about is what he’s best at: going out and competing.

“He’s all heart on the court,” Philippoussis said. “He takes what he has, as far as his game, to the absolute max and heart can take you a very, very long way.”

1. Novak Djokovic
With his fifth year-end No. 1 finish in 2018, Djokovic showed everyone he’s back. The Serbian also added four more Big Titles to his ledger by winning Wimbledon, Western & Southern Open, US Open and Rolex Shanghai Masters. Who will stop the Serbian from accumulating more Grand Slam and ATP Masters 1000 titles?

Chances of finishing in the..

Top 5: 98%
Top 10: 99%

2. Rafael Nadal
Despite playing only 13 events – four less than even Roger Federer – Nadal still finished No. 2 in the ATP Rankings, backed by – alert: you’ve heard this before – his record-setting clay-court season, which featured four of his five titles, including his 11^th Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and Roland Garros titles.

If Nadal can, yet again, produce a historic European clay-court swing in 2019, expect him to earn another Top 3 finish.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 97%
Top 10: 99%

3. Roger Federer
If Federer employs the same plan of skipping the clay swing for the third year in a row, his year-end ATP Ranking will be heavily influenced by his showings at hard-court events before April: Australian Open, BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Miami Open presented by Itau. Sweep all three, like he did in 2017, and perhaps Federer will battle for No. 1 again. But come up empty and Federer could have to fight to stay inside the Top 5.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 95%
Top 10: 99%

4. Alexander Zverev
Zverev, with the biggest title of his career in the books from the Nitto ATP Finals, will face pressure out of the proverbial gates at the Australian Open, where many will expect him to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final. But the 21-year-old showed in 2018 that extra expectations don’t bother him. If the German can make a Grand Slam semi-final or two, in 12 months, we could see a “No. 3” or “No. 2” next to his name.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 96%
Top 10: 99%

5. Juan Martin del Potro
Del Potro has finished inside the Top 5 of the year-end ATP Rankings three times (2018, 5; 2013, 5; 2009, 5), but never in back-to-back years. His wrist held up during his busy 2018, but in another sign of Del Potro’s record-setting awful luck, at the Rolex Shanghai Masters in October, the Argentine fractured his right patella and had to miss the remainder of the year, including a return trip to the Nitto ATP Finals. A healthy Del Potro in 2019 could challenge for his first back-to-back Top 5 finish.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 65%
Top 10: 80%

6. Kevin Anderson
Few players, if any, will work harder than Anderson to repeat a career-best season. In 2018, the South African won two of his five titles (New York, Vienna) and made the semi-finals (l. to Djokovic) on debut at the Nitto ATP Finals. The 32-year-old’s previous best year-end finish was No. 12 in 2015.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 50%
Top 10: 75%

7. Marin Cilic
If you’re going to be stuck somewhere, No. 6 and No. 7 are OK places to land in the ATP Rankings. Cilic has resided in the middle of the Top 10 for the past three years: 2016, No. 6; 2017, No. 6; and 2018, No. 7. Last season, for the 11^th straight year, he won a tour-level title. But if Cilic can add to his Grand Slam title haul (1; 2014 US Open), he might crack the upper echelon of the elite.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 45%
Top 10: 80%

Read More: Djokovic’s Surprisingly Successful Second-Serve Strategy

8. Dominic Thiem
We know this about Thiem: If he can make another deep run at Roland Garros and keep winning titles on clay in 2019 – a near guarantee – he’ll likely earn himself another place in the year-end Top 10. But how Thiem fares on hard courts throughout the season – he’s never reached a Masters 1000 hard-court final – might determine if he climbs further.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 45%
Top 10: 75%

9. Kei Nishikori
From starting his season on the ATP Challenger Tour in January to ending it with his fourth appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals in November, Kei Nishikori surely surpassed expectations during his comeback year from right wrist surgery. More good news: With zero ATP Rankings points to defend Down Under in January, he’ll have a big opportunity to immediately scale the ATP Rankings in 2019. He twice has finished in the year-end Top 5 (2016, 5; 2014, 5).

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 33%
Top 10: 75%

10. John Isner
The 33-year-old Isner had a career year in 2018 – on and off the court. He and his new bride, Madison McKinley, celebrated the birth of their first child, Hunter Grace; Isner won his maiden Masters 1000 title in Miami; and the 6’10” right-hander debuted at the Nitto ATP Finals before finishing the season in the year-end Top 10 for the first time.

Some might balk at the idea that Isner, who will turn 34 in April, could back up his career year. But before you do that, take a look at the ages of his Top 10 peers.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 10%
Top 10: 45%

11. Karen Khachanov
The 22-year-old Khachanov, along with Borna Coric and Stefanos Tsitsipas, among other rising stars, will have the attention of everyone in 2019, as the questions will file in like the sun bakes in Melbourne – steady and intensely: Will one of them make a deep run at a Slam? Could they take the next step and begin to break up the Big Three?

Khachanov ended Djokovic’s 22-match win streak in the final of the Rolex Paris Masters in November to win his first Masters 1000 title.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 10%
Top 10: 55%
Top 20: 90%

12. Borna Coric
Coric, like Khachanov, delivered some of the best results one year after competing at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. In 2018, Coric denied Federer his 10^th Gerry Weber Open title in Halle, and the Croatian made the Rolex Shanghai Masters final (l. to Djokovic) in October.

The team that joined Coric in 2018 – coaches Riccardo Piatti and Kristijan Schneider, along with manager Ivan Ljubicic, who coaches Federer – will be back in 2019 as well.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 10%
Top 10: 50%
Top 20: 90%

The next chapter starts now! ??@PiattiTennis pic.twitter.com/BWhyCPsgNP

— borna coric (@borna_coric) December 10, 2018

13. Fabio Fognini
Aged 31, the Italian compiled his best season last year – three titles, 46 wins and a personal year-end best in the ATP Rankings. Fognini seems to have calmed the inner theatre that sometimes derailed his tennis, and if he can make a couple end-of-week finishes at Masters 1000 events, he could squeeze inside the Top 10 in 2019.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 8%
Top 10: 45%
Top 20: 75%

14. Kyle Edmund
In the beginning of the season – semi-finals at the Australian Open – and towards the end of the year – winning his first title at the European Open in Antwerp – Edmund showed his best tennis. Toss a title or two in the middle of 2019 as well, and Edmund could be firmly inside the Top 15 next year.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 5%
Top 10: 45%
Top 20: 75%

15. Stefanos Tsitsipas
The 20-year-old Greek reached three finals and won his maiden tour-level title at the Intrum Stockholm Open, in addition to taking the Next Gen ATP Finals championship in Milan (d. De Minaur).

His run at the Rogers Cup in Toronto set records: Tsitsipas, then 19, became the youngest player to beat four consecutive Top 10 players at a single tournament. Yet he still has room for growth in 2019: last year, Tsitsipas reached only one fourth round at a Grand Slam (Wimbledon, l. to Isner).

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 6%
Top 10: 55%
Top 20: 80%

16. Daniil Medvedev
The Russian, who also competed at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in 2017, might have had the best season you didn’t hear about. Medvedev went 3-0 in tour-level finals, quietly sweeping his way through the Sydney International (d. De Minaur), Winston-Salem Open (d. Johnson) and the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2018 (d. Nishikori). He also stepped up at Masters 1000 events, going 8-9 after starting 0-5 at the level.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 2%
Top 10: 35%
Top 20: 70%

17. Diego Schwartzman
The 5’7” Argentine is the epitome of underdog in this era of “size dominates” on the ATP Tour. But Schwartzman won the biggest title of his career, at the Rio Open presented by Claro, and set a new career-high of No. 11 in the ATP Rankings last season. The right-hander, with an aggressive style of play but also the wheels to chase down most anything, is a man few want to see across the net.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 1%
Top 10: 35%
Top 20: 65%

18. Milos Raonic
Don’t check right now, but the Canadian, who ended 2016 at No. 3 in the ATP Rankings, will be 28 when the calendar flips to 1 January 2019. But the oft-injured Raonic has bonafide reasons to be optimistic as he approaches 30.

He climbed six spots in the year-end ATP Rankings, from No. 24 in 2017 to No. 18 in 2018, and, after trying out a number of former pros, Raonic appears to have settled on 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic as his coach. The big question in 2019 for Raonic is the same question it’s been his entire career: Can he stay healthy?

If he can, he has the game to finish among the elite, and he’s proven he can do it in the past. Raonic has regularly made deep runs at Masters 1000 events and Grand Slams. He’s also finished inside the Top 10 three prior times and owns a total of six Top 15 year-end finishes.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 15%
Top 10: 50%
Top 20: 80%

19. Grigor Dimitrov
The 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion will be looking for a bounce back 2019. Dimitrov dropped 16 spots in his year-end ranking, from No. 3 in 2017 to No. 19 in 2018.

A good start Down Under will go a long way to restoring that Top 10 year-end ATP Ranking for Dimitrov. In 2017, his best year yet, he won the Brisbane International for his fifth tour-level title and ended the Aussie summer by reaching his second Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open (Wimbledon 2014). The Bulgarian has said he plans to continue working with former No. 1 Andre Agassi, who joined him during the final tournament of the 2018 regular season, the Rolex Paris Masters, and coach Daniel Vallverdu in 2019.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 15%
Top 10: 45%
Top 20: 80%

 
20. Marco Cecchinato
The Italian started 2018 with four tour-level wins and at No. 109 in the ATP Rankings. But behind two tour-level titles – Gazprom Hungarian Open and Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag – and a semi-final run at Roland Garros, Cecchinato capped the best season of his life with a Top 20 finish.

Can he do it again? Much of that will depend on how Cecchinato fares on clay, his favourite surface. Collect a few more titles on the red dirt, and the 26-year-old could find himself among the elite in the game once again.

Chances of finishing in the…

Top 5: 1%
Top 10: 2%
Top 20: 50%

The ATP ACES For Charity grants once again made a major impact in 2018, with the recipients, who each received $/€15,000, using the funds for worthy causes.

Those recipients as well as many other players on the ATP World Tour showed that their impact extends far beyond the tennis court with their charity work this season. Here are some highlights of various charitable deeds the world’s best tennis players did this year:

– Novak Djokovic visited the Miami Children’s Museum ahead of the Miami Open presented by Itau to read a book titled Pete the Cat to about 50 children of different age groups in a packed auditorium.

That’s not the only education Djokovic has been involved in, as the Serbian’s Novak Djokovic Foundation continued to support the Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellowship at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. The fellowship supports doctoral research into childhood development.

– Roger Federer competed in the ‘Match For Africa 5’ in March, joined by Bill Gates, Jack Sock and others in San Jose, California, to raise money for his Roger Federer Foundation.

Federer traveled to Zambia in April in support of his foundation, as well. The Swiss superstar visited educational programmes and spoke with students and parents who benefit from foundation-funded projects. Federer also made sure to partake in some of the local fun, kicking around a football with children and dancing with the boys and girls. 

– Rafael Nadal led a minute of silence with staff and players at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in October for those affected by floods in Mallorca. Nadal spent three hours helping with the cleanup, and he also opened up rooms at his academy for at least 50 people who needed refuge. In December, he donated €1 million to those affected.

– Nick Kyrgios practised with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — where a shooting on 14 February resulted in the loss of 17 students and teachers — during the Miami Open presented by Itau. After his third-round win, the Australian invited the school’s tennis teams to his practice the following day.

In addition to various instances in which he hit with children on-site at events, Kyrgios has also been making progress with his NK Foundation, which was created to serve underprivileged youth. In tandem with Legends United, NK Foundation launched a memorabilia auction in October, helping to raise money for charity.

– Kyrgios participated in the Get Set Games Charity Challenge at the Kaleen Tennis Club in Canberra, Australia, in December, raising more than $5,000 for his self-named foundation. The Aussie made a special bond with an eight-year-old girl named Loga Gandhi, who for the past 18 months has been recovering from a bone marrow transplant that was performed to treat leukemia.

– Horia Tecau first published a children’s book in Romanian in 2016. But this year, he was able to further spread the lessons he’s learned on his journey to becoming a professional tennis player. Tecau donated hundreds of copies of his book, which was newly translated into English, Life Is Like A Tennis Game, at the US Open.

“When I first started thinking about making this book, it was a passion and I wanted to share it with more and more kids. I launched it in 2016 in Romanian,” Tecau said. “Because of the funds that we got from the ATP, we were able to translate it, to ship it, and to donate it here at Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day.

– Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi‘s Stop War Start Tennis, a 2018 ATP ACES For Charity grant recipient, is on a mission to spotlight existing projects around the world through official visits, while assessing the needs of local partners and also verifying that donations are being used transparently. The foundation visited Cambodia, where it had donated wheelchairs to local projects.

– Emilio Sanchez Vicario and Feliciano Lopez announced the creation of the 2018 Casper Tour, a series of junior tennis events that were held to honour the life of Casper Fernandez, a student at Academia Sánchez-Casal in Florida who passed away last July after a battle against bone cancer at the age of 16.

Players ages nine through 14 were allowed to compete, with draws for each individual age group. That was done to maximise the amount of time juniors get on the court in a competitive environment, rather than forcing them to play against kids older than them.

– The Gazprom Hungarian Open, a 2018 ATP ACES For Charity grant recipient, held a successful kids’ day during this year’s tournament that benefitted more than 400 children. The event also donated three junior-sized sports wheelchairs, which kids used to play tennis with the help of wheelchair tennis instructors and ATP World Tour pros.

– Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, a 2018 ATP ACES For Charity grant recipient continued pursuing his mission with Futuros para el Tenis, a foundation, of helping young children at social risk obtain university scholarships around the world through tennis and education. The Chilean has both gotten on court with the children to help positively influence them as well as worked to garner support for the foundation.

– Former ATP World Tour players Andy Roddick, Mark Knowles, Tommy Haas and Taylor Dent, along with current player Mitchell Krueger participated in the third edition of the Dirk Nowitzki Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic in Dallas, Texas. The tennis players joined Dirk Nowitzki, the NBA star, to raise money for the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation in support of the health, wellbeing and education of children.

– Next Gen ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas raised money in support the victims of Greek wildfires, which resulted in dozens of deaths and affected countless more people. Tsitsipas began a Facebook fundraiser to raise money. Tsitsipas also penned a first-person essay to help raise awareness of the fires and express how much his country means to him.

– Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Frances Tiafoe, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey donated $19,500 that were used to resurface two courts in Sunnyside, Houston, which were affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Not only did the ATP World Tour stars help monetarily, but the Bryans, Isner, Tiafoe, Querrey and Steve Johnson visited the courts to hit with about 40 local children who use the courts regularly.

– Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Milos Raonic, Andy Roddick, Kevin Anderson, Frances Tiafoe, Mardy Fish, Gaston Gaudio, Fabio Fognini, Guillermo Canas, Jean-Julien Rojer and Reilly Opelka were the ATP World Tour players who joined golf legend Jack Nicklaus for the the “Fore Love” tournament, which combines golf and tennis pro-ams, and raised $1.1 million for the Bryan Bros. Foundation and the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation.

– Kevin Anderson helped raise more than $100,000 at his inaugural Grand Slam Cause For the Paws, supporting South Florida dog rescue Dezzy’s Second Chance and Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance with the help of Tennys Sandgren, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan along with other tennis stars.

–Tommy Robredo was named the recipient of the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in the 2018 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon. The Spaniard, who launched the Tommy Robredo Foundation in 2009, pushes to encourage sports training for the disabled.

– The ATP implemented a wave of new initiatives at this year’s Nitto ATP Finals to ensure the season finale was the most sustainable tournament since the prestigious season-ending event moved to London in 2009.

For the first time, each player and their teams were provided with optional re-usable bottles for their on-court drinks, while sealed glass bottles were provided in the player locker rooms and bedrooms for the preparation of their on-court drinks. Water coolers and fountains were also placed at various points backstage for tournament staff and media, along with the provision of reusable water bottles to reduce the number of plastic water bottles used over the duration of the tournament.

Additionally, for the first time at the season-ending event, The O2 worked in partnership with Stack-Cup to provide fans with reusable cups for alcoholic drinks purchased at the venue, which they were able to return or take home. This significantly reduced the number of plastic bottles and single-use plastic drinks containers sold, with an estimate 50,000 single-use plastic cups removed from the event waste stream.