Andy Murray: Amélie Mauresmo’s role will be reviewed after Wimbledon

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jun/09/andy-murray-amelie-mauresmo-coach-wimbledon-queens

Version 0 of 1.

Andy Murray will use the grass-court season as a trial period to assess whether the relationship with his coach, Amélie Mauresmo, can work in the long term.

When asked whether Mauresmo was a long-term appointment Murray, who begins the defence of his Queen’s title against the Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu on Wednesday, said: “No, it’s just for the grass-court season. It’s quite a high-pressure situation in the next few weeks. I can get a good idea if it will work long-term or not.”

Murray also seemed to signal that Mauresmo’s approach might differ from that of Lendl, the famously fierce taskmaster who guided him to two grand slam titles. And he appeared mildly to chide his former coach when he said he now realised “you can’t just be pushed extremely hard every single day”.

“I have started to listen to my body a lot more, because over the years you start to pick up some things,” he said. “I think it’s important that the people that you work with respect and understand and listen to how you’re feeling because you can’t just be pushed extremely hard every single day. I need to pick my moments during the year where I really go for it in training.”

Murray dismissed concerns that picking a female coach might lead to difficulties because they are not allowed into the men’s locker room, saying he didn’t see “any problems in that respect”.

“You can’t sit down and chat in there but there’s enough places where you can,” he said. “Sometimes I speak about tactics the night before my matches and sometimes I do it 20-30 minutes before I go on court when I’m normally in the gym.”

Murray has always been his own man, and he said he was unconcerned what those in the locker room thought of Mauresmo. “From other players’ point of view, I don’t really care whether they think it’s a good or bad appointment,” he said. “It’s whether it works well for me and my team, and hopefully it will be a good move for my career.”

The reaction seemed positive enough on the opening day of Queen’s, with Mathieu even claiming the appointment would “bring something new” to tennis because it was so unusual for a woman to coach a man. “I’m not the only one who is surprised,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s bad. I like the fact that Amélie is going to train Andy. It’s going to bring something new in our sport.”

While Murray will have to wait to get reacquainted with grass, Britain’s Dan Evans and James Ward will be back on court on Tuesday after winning their first-round matches at the tournament.

Evans, who veers between brilliance and recklessness with a frequency that frustrates his supporters and the LTA, beat the veteran Jürgen Melzer 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 to earn a second-round match against the seventh seed, Kevin Anderson.

“I played well,” said Evans, the world No134. “I took my chances and fought back from a break down in the third. He’s a tough player and grass is one of his favourite surfaces as well.”

Ward, who is ranked 168, squeezed past the Slovenian Blaz Rola 7-5, 6-4. The 23-year-old Rola was making his first appearance on grass but he looked the part in all-white attire that would have found favour with the All England Club committee. In the first set in particular there were also flashes of textbook grass-court tennis: a thudding serve followed by brusque volley; a slice to the backhand followed by a punchy put away. The key difference was that when Ward got his chances, he took them.

He next meets the world No13, Grigor Dimitrov, and knows he is up against it. “It would be obviously an upset if you look at the rankings,” he said. “But I think it will be a good match.”