Former world number-one John McEnroe has prasied rising tennis star Andy Murray's "natural ability", and insisted the Scottish teenager would be in the world's top five come Wimbeldon.
Speaking in Northern Ireland, the three-time Wimbledon champion was enthusiastic Murray would continue his rapid rise up the rankings and become an even more dominat force amongst the game's elite. The Scot is currently ranked a carrer high of number 13 in the ATP world rankings, and McEnroe predicted bigger leaps up the rankings come the end of June.
The 19 year old has enjoyed some of his best results of late, coming off a fourth round showing at the Austrailian Open in January and a successful defence of his maiden title in San Jose. Murray beat Andy Roddick for the third time during the indoor Calirfornian tournament in straight sets. McEnroe claimed the Scot's ranking rise thus far has been no surprise, prasisng his striking of the ball and acknowledging that he is "physically rounding out".
However he did predict tougher challenges for the teenager in the coming months, most notably from the commencing of the clay court season in April. The Scot had a string of poor results on the clay last season which included a number of first round losses, inlcuding at the French Open. McEnroe warned "It's not going to be easy for him on the clay - that's where the guys are going to come after him". However, should Murray adapt to the tough conditions on the European clay, he could see his ranking soar, with few ranking points to defend from the clay court season from last year.