Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

With the Davis Cup final in Ghent is now just a week and a half away, Belgian police have stepped up their manhunt in Molenbeek suburb of Brussels and arrested more than 23 suspects in the Paris terror attack of last weekend. Yet though Andy Murray knows this is taking place little more than 30 miles distant from where the Great Britain team will face Belgium next week, he is insistent the final must go ahead.

The safety of both the public and the players at the final will be the responsibility of the International Tennis Federation. However last night the Lawn Tennis Association was stepping up their own measures to surround both the team and safeguard an expected 2,000 travelling supporters with former members of Britain’s security forces.

World no.2 Murray was one of the first non-French sportsmen to simply tweet an image of the Tricolor in support of the Parisian people and after beating David Ferrer in his opening match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at the London 02 Arena, he maintained: “I think everybody right now is concerned about things.

“But I do think the best thing that we can do is to live our normal lives, not change too much, because then the terrorists are the ones that are winning.”

Murray’s memory of Paris was fresh, having contested the final of BNP Paribas Masters just six days before the attacks. Answering specifically about whether he was concerned about his own personal safety in Ghent, he continued: “We need to go out there, do what we always do and try not to change too much.

“That’s all we can do. I don’t want to live my life in fear each time I step on a tennis court. So that’s what I’ll do.”

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.