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Andy Murray appoints Amélie Mauresmo as his new coach
Andy Murray appoints Amélie Mauresmo as his new coach
(about 5 hours later)
Andy Murray, true to his individual spirit, has appointed Amélie Mauresmo as his new coach, replacing Ivan Lendl who quit three months ago. It is a gamble and will attract much interest. Mauresmo, a former world No1 who won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, will be one of just a handful of women coaching men on the ATP Tour, but Murray thinks she will bring the sort of expertise he is looking for to augment the team that has been with him for several years.
It might last a month, it might last the rest of his career but Andy Murray’s appointment of Amélie Mauresmo as his replacement for Ivan Lendl will turn out to be either inspired or problematic. It should not be dull.
Announcing the appointment on the eve of the French Open final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the Wimbledon champion said Mauresmo will work “initially for the grass court season, starting at Queen’s”, which begins on Monday. While Mauresmo is on board for the grass season to start with, it will no doubt do her long-term prospects no harm if Murray defends both his Queen’s and Wimbledon titles, or at least goes deep in each tournament.
They begin work this week at Queen’s but they have precious little time together before Murray defends his Wimbledon title in two weeks. That is the extent of their agreement so far, one forged over dinner in Paris two weeks ago.
She is the French Federation Cup team captain and brings a history of triumph and struggle to one of the most coveted jobs in tennis. She has worked with several top French players, helping Marion Bartoli win her first major at Wimbledon in 2013. It is thought Bartoli, who is close to Murray and her compatriot Mauresmo, played a part in bringing them together for negotiations which were sealed only in the past couple of days.
Both agree that, if they click, they will extend the arrangement but Mauresmo, who organises a tournament in Toulouse, captains the French Federation Cup team and works as a commentator for Eurosport, told French journalists: “No, I don’t want to work full-time. If it’s half-time, half a year, that’s not bad.”
Mauresmo was prominent in the stands during Murray’s matches at the French Open, prompting the initial speculation that she would replace Lendl, who helped Murray to two grand slam titles and an Olympic gold medal in the two years they were together. Murray was known to be devastated by Lendl’s sudden departure, before the Miami Open, where the expatriate Czech broke the news to him over dinner.
For the benefit of English-speaking journalists earlier she described her commitment as “a significant amount of weeks that we have agreed on and should be good for everyone”. They will talk again after Wimbledon, the Scot and the Frenchwoman, tennis’s equivalent of the Auld Alliance between the two countries, perhaps – a partnership dripping in symbolism before Scotland’s vote on independence in September.
After signing Lendl, Murray stated several times that he wanted him to be his coach all the way to the end of his career, which is the main reason the split left a bit of a scar. He nevertheless played well here all the way to his semi-final with Nadal, who beat him in straight sets on Friday.
Murray said: “I spoke to her a few times on the phone and when I was in Paris I met her before the tournament. We chatted a little bit about it, whether she’d be up for doing it. There was a will from both sides to give it a go and see how it works out. We’ll try during the grass-court [tournaments] and hopefully we’ll both enjoy it.
“I’m excited by the possibilities of the new partnership,” Murray said en route to a training session at Queen’s on Sunday, “and Amélie is someone I have always looked up to and admired. She’s faced adversity plenty of times in her career, but was an amazing player and won major titles, including Wimbledon.
“She’s obviously a fantastic player. She won Wimbledon, she was world No1, won the Australian Open. Just from speaking to her, she’s very calm, she’s a good person. I think we will communicate well together and I think that’s a very important part of coaching. I hope it works well.
“I have a very strong coaching team already in place, but I think Amélie brings with her experience and tactical expertise and will push us all to improve. Everyone I know talks very highly of Amélie, as a person and coach, and I’m convinced that her joining the team will help us push on – I want to win more grand slams.”
“I obviously worked with my Mum for a long time and then even periods when I was 16, 17 years old. For me it doesn’t feel like a very different thing.
Mauresmo said: “I’m really excited to be able to work with Andy. He’s an amazingly talented tennis player and I feel I have plenty to offer both him and the team around him. I’m looking forward to getting down to work and helping him win more grand slams.”
“Obviously I wasn’t paying my Mum so it’ll be a little bit different this time around because I’ll be employing Amélie. I think it’s exciting, something a bit new for me, something a bit fresh and hopefully it works well.”
Murray dropped a significant hint that he might be moving in this direction last week when he said: “When you get a lot of men in a room, there’s often a lot of egos involved and communication can sometimes be difficult, because not everyone listens. When there’s an argument it can get heated, rather than everyone just staying calm. In those situations, women can listen a bit better and take things on board more easily than guys. From a communication point of view, it would probably be pretty good.
Earlier, en route to training at Queen’s, he said: “Amélie is someone I have always looked up to and admired. She’s faced adversity plenty of times in her career but was an amazing player and won major titles.
“To be honest, whether it’s a man or a woman, it’s just important that they see the differences in the two games. In women’s tennis, the serve isn’t as important as in the men’s game. It’s obviously harder to break [in the men’s game] – statistics show that. And obviously more training needs to go into preparing for a best-of-five-set match.
“I have a very strong coaching team already in place but I think Amélie brings with her experience and tactical expertise and will push us all to improve. Everyone I know talks very highly of Amélie, as a person and coach, and I’m convinced that her joining the team will help us push on. I want to win more grand slams.”
“In the women’s matches, you need to start incredibly quickly; you can’t afford slow starts. In a best-of-five match, you need to pace yourself a bit more. So long as they understand that, they can easily cope with both: a man can work with a woman or a woman can work with a man. If they don’t accept that, then there will be arguments.”
Speaking at Roland Garros, where she watched Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic in four sets in the French Open final, Mauresmo added: “I’m really excited to be able to work with Andy. He’s an amazingly talented tennis player and I feel I have plenty to offer both him and the team around him.”
“It’s very easy to generalise when you talk about men and women. Everyone’s different. There are some men who will completely panic when something bad is happening in a match and there will be some women who will panic during matches. The ones who make the good coaches are [those] who are able to stay calm in those moments and can give sound, clear advice in pressure situations. When you’ve been there and done it, it’s obviously easier to pass on that sort of advice.”
Women coaches are rare on the men’s tour. Mauresmo joins Anastasia Kukushkina, who married the Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin, and Denis Istomin’s mother, Klaudiya, who has been with him for several years.
Among the few prominent woman coaches of men are Anastasia Kukushkina, who married the Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin, and Denis Istomin’s mother, Klaudiya, who has been with him on the Tour for several years.
Mauresmo is only the second woman to coach a top-10 player, however, after Tatiana Naumko, who guided the career of the Russian world No9 Andrei Chesnokov in the 90s.
