Just two weeks before the second Grand Slam of the year begins at Roland Garros, Murray and Mauresmo’s working relationship came to an amicable end, with their two years together demonstrating to tennis’ reactionaries how it is perfectly possible for a woman to coach a man at the highest level of the game.
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The Scot was the first leading male player to employ a female coach, saying at the time of the appointment: “I’ve always had a strong female influence in my career and that’s something I needed right now”. “I’ve been three years away from Madrid and I missed it”, said Djokovic, who last played the event in 2013. Maybe unless I had won a Grand Slam, maybe ultimately that’s how people may judge whether it worked or not, but when she first came into the team, I was really struggling. “I don’t know how I dug my way out, but that’s how it happens when you play against one of the best in the world”. “I’m not going on the court sort of a little bit nervous or apprehensive. No one batted an eyelid about that”.
Murray analyzed saying, “Actually, the difficulty lies between us and the former stars who have been showing willingness to join coaching”.
Murray also became a parent this year, with wife Kim Sears giving birth to a girl a week after he lost to Djokovic in the Australian Open final. Murray would dearly love to beat Serbia with or without Djokovic, who seems reluctant to declare his availability in the Davis Cup and is prioritising the Olympics in Rio.
“It’s nothing to do with Amélie being a woman”.
I don’t think Andy is going anywhere from the summit of the game for the next three or four years. I tried to look for solutions, and I think I did that; it wasn’t enough. “Obviously in Australia it started well”. Murray then went up 4-1 after Djokovic committed a double fault during the fifth game. “We only spent 10 days together in 21/2 months”. “It just makes things hard because you need to work your way through those tough times and when you’re not spending time together it’s very hard to do that. Post-Wimbledon and post the US Open there was going to be periods where we were spending significant time apart”.
While Murray flies into Rome for his next assignment on the tour in the company of Jamie Delgado, a friend who was only formally added to his team after January’s Australian Open, Mauresmo insisted her time with the Scot had been a “fantastic experience”.
The victory means Djokovic also edges ahead of Spain’s Rafael Nadal with a record 29 ATP Masters 1000 titles.
“There’s a week after the French Open finishes and before Queen’s, so possibly at Queen’s I could try something out”, Murray told the BBC. “It just made more sense to stop now”.
“I haven’t given it loads of thought”. Again, I want it to work long term, so I will take that into consideration.
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‘I am very happy working with a group of USTA boys and enjoying not having to travel much.
