'Sir Andy' part of locker room jokes says Murray while revealing plan for 2017 season

Andy Murray has revealed that his knighthood has been the talk of the locker room among the other players, but made it clear that none of them are obligated to call him "Sir Andy". The 29-year-old views the honour in recognition for his achievements rather than a title.

The world number one was knighted in the New Year Honours list after a splendid 2016 season that saw him scoop a record nine titles on the tour including a second Wimbledon and Olympic gold. The Scot also took over the top spot in the men's singles ranking from Novak Djokovic for the first time in his career, which earned him the 2016 BBC Sports Personality of the Year title.

Murray began his 2017 campaign at the Qatar Open in Doha and continued his form by recording his 25<sup>th consecutive win on the ATP tour in straight sets over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on 2 January. The Scot recorded five consecutive tournament wins on the ATP tour in the final months of last season, and is keen to continue the momentum going into the 2017 campaign.

"A few of the players have been joking about it, but I don't expect any of them to call me by that seriously. For me it's more the sort of honour or recognition of what you achieved. It's obviously very, very nice," Murray said, as quoted by The Times.

"I wouldn't think I would use the 'sir' much nowadays. I feel like I used to say that to teachers and people much, much older than me. So Andy is good.

"It does feel a little bit like starting fresh again after the off-season and having not played a match for pretty much a month and a half or so. But [I want to] just try and carry on from where I finished last year, which was playing some of the best tennis of my life. I learnt a lot in that run, in that period at the end of the year, so I will try and use that to get off to a start this year," the world number one added.