Andy Murray heads into the clay-court season in confident mood after a superb run on US hard courts that culminated with victory in Miami on Sunday.
The Briton, 21, beat Novak Djokovic 6-2 7-5 to win his third Masters title, and it followed a run to the final at the Indian Wells Masters two weeks earlier.
"It's been a really good month for me," the Scot told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I wasn't feel great going into Indian Wells and I didn't have such high expectations."
Murray has also won tournaments in Dubai and Rotterdam this year and is the only player to have won three times in 2009, taking his career total to 11 ATP titles.
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I had reserves, physically, that I didn't know I had before and in these kinds of conditions, this is the reason why you put the hard work in
Andy Murray
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He had arrived in the US last month on the back of pulling out of Great Britain's Davis Cup tie against Ukraine because of a virus.
Murray was still feeling the effects when he began his campaign in Indian Wells but believes the lower expectations might have helped him.
"It's kind of worked for me in a lot ways," he said.
"I've been more relaxed on the court and my performances have been very good. I got a lot of matches to get my fitness back and hopefully be feeling good going into the clay-court season."
Murray went close to overhauling Djokovic for the world number three ranking in Miami and is likely to do so in the forthcoming clay-court stretch.
The Serb has a lot of ranking points to defend from last year, having won in Rome and reached the last four in Monte Carlo, Hamburg and the French Open.
Murray, in contrast, did not make it past the last 16 in any of those events and will hope to do considerably better this year.
"I'm just excited to try and improve on that surface because I think I can play very well on it, I just haven't the last couple of years, and I'll work hard in the next week or so to get ready for Monte Carlo," he said.
"I'd like to do better than I did last year and try and make a quarter-final of one of the tournaments, and take it from there."
Such is the Briton's form, only twice since Wimbledon - at the Olympics and Australian Open - has he failed to make at least the quarter-finals of an event.
His 57-7 match record since losing to Rafael Nadal at the All England Club is the best of any player for that period, with the Spaniard on 50-7 .
"I'm finding ways to come through matches at the start of tournaments when I haven't been playing my best," said Murray.
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Ben
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"I've started to play better and better as the weeks have gone on and just played my best tennis when I needed to, right at the end.
"Before it wasn't necessarily like that and I've got used to going deep into tournaments and having that sort of expectation.
"I've just got to try and keep it going in the clay-court stretch because it's been a great start to the year and I'd love to try and keep it going into Wimbledon."
Murray was almost on home ground in Miami as he owns an apartment there, and carried out his gruelling winter training programme nearby.
"We put in a lot of hard work the last year-and-a-half and it's paid off a lot," he said.
"I had reserves, physically, that I didn't know I had before and in these kinds of conditions, this is the reason why you put the hard work in.
"So when you play the big matches in this weather you can find ways to get through even when it is tough, and it was so humid out there."
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