Murray worried as Nadal and Federer close in

Andy Murray says he's consigned himself to losing the world No.1 ranking on the back of the incredible resurgence of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

Federer and Nadal have returned with a bang after suffering injury-plagued years in 2016, with Federer winning the Australian Open and Rafael Nadal winning the French.

Murray revelled in their absence towards the back half of 2016, making the French Open final before winning Queen's and Wimbledon, as well as in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, Paris and at the ATP Finals.

Thus Murray has 8060 ranking points to defend until the end of 2017, with current world No. 2 Nadal just 2605 points behind him and having only 370 points to defend in the same period.

"It's most likely that I'll lose the No. 1 spot," Murray said recently.

"No one has kept it forever, it will inevitably happen at some stage.

"If you want to stay as world No. 1, you can't have three or four months of the year where you're not winning matches or not performing well in the big events, which is what happened from me from February through to the French Open.

"So it's more than likely that that'll happen, which is fine. I'm not trying to win Wimbledon for rankings points, I'm trying to win Wimbledon – that's my goal. I'll train and prepare as best as I can for that."

Murray also thinks he may only have a "couple of years" left of competing at the highest level.

Although Federer, who turns 36 in August, took his majors tally to 18 with victory at the Australian Open, the 30-year-old Briton does not expect to still be competing at such a level when he reaches that age.

"My coach, Ivan Lendl, was still competitive at the top until he was about 32 but, generally, over the past 20 to 30 years, normally by early 30s is when players have struggled to stay at the top," Murray said in an interview with BBC Sport.

"I know some of the players have been doing really well until their mid-30s recently, but that might not be the case with me. Maybe the next couple of years are the last few where I have a chance to compete for the majors and the biggest tournaments.

"Most of the players are travelling with physios now, spending a lot more time working in the gym to protect their bodies from the kind of pounding you give it on the court as well. I think some of that explains it.

"I don't know how long I'm going to be playing for any more. I want to make the most of every tournament I compete in. If I'm going to be away from my family, I'm not going to do that and not do my best, be totally professional and take every tournament as seriously as I can.

"I'll continue to play and so long as my body is fine. I would like to hope that I would continue to do that whilst I'm still enjoying it.

"I enjoy being away from the court. I have a family now - I have more interests away from the court than I did in my early 20s or mid 20s - so obviously it will be sad to stop. But I think I'll be all right."