While the Australian Open may have ended on a sour note for one Andy Murray at the hands of his perennial conqueror Novak Djokovic, that should not detract from what was a superb and historic tournament for those of a British persuasion.

Johanna Konta was rewarded for her valiant efforts with a move up the rankings to inside the world’s top 30. The Australian-born Brit reached the semi-finals of the women’s tournament last week, and in doing so became the first British woman to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam in 33 years. Even though Konta lost to the eventual winner, Angelique Kerber, she provided a much-needed boost of optimism to British female tennis, after the declines of Laura Robson and Heather Watson due to various injuries and loss of form.

Meanwhile, Andy’s older brother Jamie managed to upstage his younger yet more illustrious sibling by winning his first doubles Grand Slam title with his partner Bruno Soares. This resulted in a move up the rankings to doubles world number two. The Brit, however, has aspirations to make the jump up to world number one (an achievement that would surely draw envy from Andy, who seems destined to remain world number two for a while yet), saying: “I got to number two so why not get to number one? It’s one final step to try to get to number one.” It’s refreshing to see fighting talk from at least one Murray recently. One can only hope that Andy will take a leaf out of his brother’s book and return from paternity leave with a clear plan to wrestle the top spot out of the hands of the formidable Novak Djokovic.

Finally, Gordon Reid won the Australian Open wheelchair singles title with a three-set victory over Joachim Gerard, winning his first Grand Slam. In doing so, he ended British tennis’s week on a high, although his remark that “it’s been a great weekend for Scottish tennis” may have perturbed more than a few English fans of the game.