Andy Murray 's ATP singles season will end in Antwerp on Thursday night unless he can overcome world No 45 Pablo Cuevas . This is his final tournament of an eventful year, in which he has proven himself capable of competing once again with the world's best players.
Now that this essential fact has been established, the next questions surround Great Britain's upcoming team competitions - and indeed the Tokyo Olympics - where Murray could potentially resume his on-off doubles partnership with brother Jamie.
It was only 40 miles away, in Ghent, that the Murrays joined forces to help secure Great Britain's first Davis Cup in 79 years. At the Olympics, however, Andy and Jamie have fared notably less well. In three attempts, they have managed just a single victory, in the first round in Beijing 11 years ago. And as Andy admitted in Antwerp this week, there is an argument for not trying a fourth time.
"It's a difficult one because last time when I played the Olympics I just wanted to play everything - singles, doubles, mixed," Murray said this week. "Now I don't think I'm going to do that.
"I don't think it's a done deal that we will play together," Andy added. "I mean he's been doing well with Neal [Skupski, the 29-year-old Liverpudlian who has partnered Jamie on a strong run of 20 wins from their last 28 matches]. And also if I played a match for example like I did with Alex de Minaur [in Zhuhai three weeks ago, lasting almost three hours], there's no chance I'm playing doubles after that. I would be useless. I was so tired at the end.
"It's a tough one because we haven't done well when we've played together in the Olympics. Because it comes round every four years, both of us are desperate to do really well but we don't play with each other in preparation for it so we just turn up and hope it clicks. That's not really the right way to prepare."
Similar logic applies to the inaugural Davis Cup finals week in Madrid, which starts on Nov 18. If Andy Murray is playing singles, British captain Leon Smith will probably have to use Skupski and Jamie Murray as his doubles pairing, if only to avoid exhaustion setting in. "I won't be playing singles and doubles every day of the Davis Cup," said Murray. "Right now I'm not in the right shape to be doing that."
Meanwhile the Telegraph understands that Andrea Gaudenzi - a former junior world No. 1 who reached the fourth round of the French Open in 1994 - has been chosen by the Association of Tennis Professionals' board as their new chairman. Gaudenzi, who is 46, has a law degree and an MBA and sits on the board of ATP Media. While the ATP's constitution allows for the appointment of a chairman and a chief executive, the two posts have always been combined in one person before.
