Andy Murray has revealed that the resurgence of Roger Federer at this year’s Australian Open has inspired him to believe he can compete at the top level for years to come.

The 35-year-old star won his 18th grand slam title down under, a feat that many thought highly improbable given his injury record and advanced years in tennis terms.

But 29-year-old Murray says that Federer has shown that age is just a number when it comes to competing at the elite level, and the world number one thinks he can learn from the Swiss genius when it comes to managing his body as he gets older.

“You can definitely look at some of the guys that are around just now, it’s not just Roger that is playing great tennis at 33, 34 or 35 years of age,” Murray said. “There’s a number of players up there just now.

“I feel ok physically just now, and you can look as well at the break that him and Rafa [Nadal] both had. That can prolong your career as well, looking at certain periods as well where you can have extended breaks to let your body and mind recover and relax a little bit.

“If you look at boxers, and I know it’s quite a different sport, but they spend three or four months preparing for one fight, whereas we’re pretty much competing on a weekly basis and playing loads of matches, and that’s something maybe as I get a little bit older I’ll look at and take a few more breaks during the year.

“But I don’t see any reason why I can’t keep competing at the highest level for the next few years.”

Murray feels that fatigue may have played a part in his surprise defeat to Alexander Zverev in Australia, after a gruelling effort in the last six months of 2016 to reach the summit of the rankings.

“There’s definitely things that I would maybe have done a bit differently,” he admitted. “It’s difficult sometimes with the way the schedule is to get it right all of the time.

“I was in a position at the end of the year that I had never experienced before, I had played that much tennis and I’ve never been that fatigued at the end of the year to know exactly what to do.

“The tournament was obviously disappointing, and it was a disappointing one to lose, but there hasn’t been loads of those sorts of results in the major events in my career.

“I took 10 full days off after I got back and didn’t do anything. I’ve now been hitting just a little bit, maybe an hour or an hour and 30 minute a day.

“I’ve been a bit sick so I’ve not been able to do much more than that, so I’ll continue with that for another five or six days and then hopefully start to build it up next week.”

While Murray is hardly short of competitors for his crown as the world’s top player, he has welcomed the resumption of rivalries with Federer, a player who has been a central figure throughout his career.

It was Federer who defeated Murray in the Wimbledon final of 2012, reducing the Scot to tears, before the younger man roared back for what many see as his real breakthrough victory against him just a month later in the Olympic final.

They are friends as well as rivals now, so much so that Federer will join Murray at his charity event in Glasgow in November.

“When I came on the tour, the first time I played him I was 18 and he was 24,” Murray said. "He was obviously a great player then, but he’s still of an age where yeah, there’s a six-year age gap, but I feel as if I have been competing against him for a large part of my career and he’s someone I admire.

“I respect everything he’s achieved and I’ve enjoyed watching him play some of the best matches of all time.

“Roger is definitely someone that I’ve learned a lot from during my career.”