ANDY MURRAY reckons Novak Djokovic’s defeat to Stan Wawrinka in the Roland Garros final dealt an important psychological blow ahead of Wimbledon.

That was only the Serb’s third defeat in the calendar year of 2015 but it punctured talk of him recording a calendar slam and has bolstered the 28-year-old’s belief that the world No.1 is not unbeatable.

Djokovic is in the middle of an eight-match winning run against the Scot which stretches back to the 2013 final at SW19, although he has never taken as much as a set from Murray on the grass.

Yesterday’s Wimbledon draw means the earliest the two men can meet during the 2015 championships is the final, although the world No.3 may first have to dispose of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to get there. First up for the Scot is a meeting with Mikhail Kukushkin, the 27-year-old world No.58 from Kazhakhstan.

“I think maybe psychologically for the Tour it was important,” said Murray, speaking at a promotional event for kitwear manufacturers Under Armour. “I remember in Rome earlier in the year, they had a players' draw outside the locker room and, before the tournament had even started, someone had just written Djokovic's name in the winner's space.

“Obviously a lot of players were thinking that way,” he added. “Stan winning in the final was a huge upset but also showed in those matches that Novak can be beaten. Granted, Stan played an incredible match, but it can be done.”

Seven majors have come and gone since that sun-kissed day in July when Murray ended the 77-year wait for a home winner of these championships, and with temperatures forecast to soar in the London area, hopes are high that he can make it a double.

His own season’s record of 41 wins and six defeats is his best at this stage of the year, and his prospects seem far brighter than 12 months back, when he surrendered his title in a shock quarter final defeat to Grigor Dimitrov.

Crucially, his back has now healed sufficiently to train properly, and his coaching situation is settled, although Amelie Mauresmo is due to give birth to her first child in August. She is joined in Team Murray by Swedish doubles expert Jonas Bjorkman.

The relaxed vibe is massively different to the one which bore fruit under Ivan Lendl but the Scot puts much of the credit behind this winning run down to the fact he has learned that he doesn’t have to win every single week.

“Tennis isn't the only thing,” he added. “You don't have to win every single week – because, if you go in with that mindset, you're never happy.

“If you expect to win every week then when you do win, well, that's just what you expected. Whereas, if you just lower the expectations a little bit, it makes you enjoy the game a bit more.”

Murray, who has the rare luxury of staying at his home in Oxshott, Surrey, for the duration, plays for the first time at Wimbledon as a married man.

His new wife Kim was a tennis player herself in her early years and has a tennis coach for a father, and he revealed that late last year, shortly after a humiliating 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Roger Federer, that he had to reassure her that his game was headed in the right direction.

“At times like at the end of last year when I lost at the O2, she was more upset than I was,” said Murray. “I spoke to her then and tried to explain to her what was going on. She's obviously been around tennis a lot.

“People who watched that match could go, like, ‘Oh my God, he's so far away. What the hell's going on?’

“But, as a player, I knew kind of what was happening and I was actually more calm than anyone in my team. And when I spoke to people about what was happening, I felt like I knew.”

Nick Kyrgios of Australia heads an emerging generation of tennis stars, and Stan Wawrinka had gatecrashed the party by taking two of the seven Grand Slams on offer since Murray’s Wimbledon win in 2013, but the Scot feels the so-called ‘big four’ of men’s tennis – Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Murray – are still the men to beat.

“I wouldn't say it's quite the same as it was,” he added “I think at different stages, people wanted to write us off.

Apart from Novak – he hasn't really had any injuries or dips in form, really. Obviously Roger did for a while, like the year he lost to [Serhiy] Stakhovsky at Wimbledon.

Rafa [Nadal], just now, a lot of people are saying he isn't the same and he is not going to come back. I had the same thing last year as well. There are more guys who can win now, for sure. So it's definitely a lot more open than what it was.

“But I don't think that any one of the guys you mention are close to being done at the top level.”