Jacquie Beltrao: Is it right to call you Andy Murray's best friend?

Ross Hutchins:  He is my best friend, yes, you could say that.

JB: You tell him everything and you told him recently about some awful news: that you are suffering from Hodgkin's Lymphoma and you can't play tennis at the minute, you've got to have your chemo, you've got this battle on your hands. For someone as young and fit as you, when you got that news, it must have been absolutely devastating.

RH: It was very difficult, it was. It was a tough time over Christmas. I had the news just before Christmas that it [the cancer] could be Hodgkin's Lymphoma and on the 27th of December, I got told that it definitely was and that it was in my body. And then it was a matter of trying to find out if it had spread and how much it had spread and when the chemotherapy would be starting. I saw some very good specialists. The treatment plan is in place now and I had my first bout of therapy last Thursday.

JB: How are you feeling and how are you dealing with it all?

RH: I'm dealing with it well. It's amazing how many people advise you and support you. It's the family, the friends, it's the doctors. It makes you feel so much more comfortable and a lot better - a lot more secure about life and happiness. I feel good about it all. Some hours are better than others. Sometimes you feel like you have got bad headaches or bad sickness. Sometimes you don't want to eat and you have to force food down you. My diet has changed a lot. A lot of people talk about a sportsman’s diet but now battling this cancer, it's a different diet completely. There is more healthy foods - beetroot and carrot juice and not having red meat. It's difficult but I'm getting through it. I feel good and I feel positive.

JB: It's really affected Andy quite a lot because we saw him winning in Brisbane and he dedicated the win to you. He was in tears almost at the end of that tournament. How has it affected him - have you talked about it [the cancer] with him?

RH: We speak a lot - we speak every day. We always speak a lot. When you're really close friends, you just want to know what the other person is doing. We travel a lot together and now I'm going to be away from the Tour for six months. We've spoken every day. He was the first person I told outside of my family and he was absolutely brilliant. When you have such close friends like that, it doesn't matter if they're number three in the world, the best player in the world, a celebrity or just a person who you hang out with a lot, you just want to have close people around you who know the information and who can support you in certain ways. He has been fantastic and I wouldn't expect anything else. I would do the same for him - as would everyone else in the world with their close friends. So he's been absolutely brilliant. It was very touching what he did for me in Brisbane and I'm just hoping he can have a good run at the Australian Open.

JB: He'll definitely be thinking about you. How do you think he's going to do there because he's the man that many people feel might even be the favourite? He's on such a roll.

RH: He is on a roll. Last year, he played fantastically and went up a level that people thought he had in him but they were just almost waiting for Andy to explode. And he really did over that summer period with an Olympic gold and the US Open. He's started 2013 absolutely brilliantly with winning Brisbane straight away. It would have been very difficult for him to start the year well because everyone is talking about him but he thought 'I'm just going to put in a good pre-season and I'm going to start in Brisbane and breeze through that tournament.'

JB: He's reached the final at the Australian Open twice before. I guess Novak Djokovic is the man that, if you thought who he [Murray] is going to fear, it's going to be the defending champion.

RH: Novak [Djokovic] is a fantastic player. He's the number one player in the world. He already got the straight sets win this morning over Paul-Henri Mathieu. They had a great match in the US Open final last year and The O2 finals in London. They always have battles, they are so close these two and there won't be much in it. But I think with Andy's fitness and the fact that Andy loves playing in the Melbourne Arena...

JB: It's really hot there because you've played there before and that is one thing you have to battle with.

RH: It is. This morning Andy said it was 22 degrees Celsius which isn't that hot. It's going to get hotter and it's going to be a battle of fitness. Just like with Djokovic and [Rafael] Nadal last year in the final, which was six hours long, it's going to be a battle of who is the fittest. These guys are one per cent different on their best days and they do bring out their best form when they play each other in the latter stages, assuming they get there, but I believe they will. It's going to be a 50/50 match but I think Andy is positioned very well and he is playing very well. When you have a title going into a tournament, you feel great.

JB: When are you hoping to be back on court?

RH: I'm hoping it will be about eight months so I'm aiming for the US Open in the back of my mind.