Having lost six of his last nine matches on tour, including from 5-2 and match point up against Alex de Minaur at the Paris Masters on October 30, three-time Major champion and former world no. 1 Andy Murray has today announced splitting from longtime coach Ivan Lendl for a third time after their partnership didn’t prove fruitful as it has done in the past and the 2024 campaign nears.
Murray makes coaching change, looks to arrest poor form
- “Ivan has been by my side at the biggest moments in my career, I can’t thank him enough for all he’s helped me achieve. He’s a unique character, who understands what it takes to win and I’ve learned an awful lot over the years from him,” Murray said in a statement released earlier today
- A former world no. 1 and eight-time Major champion himself, Czech-American Lendl has been one of the most influential figures in Murray’s career, helping him win his first two Majors before reuniting in 2016 where he later clinched a second Wimbledon title that same season
- “I will look back with some great memories of the time Andy and I worked together – he’s as hard a worker as there is, the sport is better because of him. I wish him only the best in the years to come,” Lendl on the Brit
- As the Davis Cup Finals begin later this month, the 36-year-old will continue working alongside the rest of his team as currently constructed: one of the LTA’s national coaches in Mark Hilton, doubles player Jonny O’Mara while receiving technical advice from LTA employee Louis Cayer
On the same day his younger compatriot and friend Jack Draper reached an ATP final for the first time in his injury-hit career – the youngest British man to reach that feat since Andy Murray did so in Miami 2009 – the former world number one announced he’ll again be splitting from longtime coach Ivan Lendl.
Murray has been unequivocal when questioned over the past two years about refocusing his ambitions after multiple hip surgeries: he wants to re-establish himself as one of the world’s best again.
That’s easier said than done but the optics were encouraging when he announced Lendl would be part of the team again in March 2022, three months after splitting from another longtime coach in Jamie Delgado – assistant-turned-head coach after Lendl departed the Brit a second time in November 2017.
After reaching the Sydney final in the second week of the year, Murray alternated wins and losses for several months before falling narrowly short on the grass in Surbiton and Stuttgart last season.
He was outfoxed by big-serving John Isner at Wimbledon, who announced his retirement on the eve of Flushing Meadows, then a patchy end to the 2022 season still gave him reasons to be optimistic as his ATP world ranking improved.
Add to that a pair of heroic five-set wins over Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis at this year’s Australian Open, as well as a Doha runners-up plate the following month, his level was clearly still there to match the world’s best.
Sustaining it on a weekly basis, given his injury history and the ever-increasing miles on his body, was a much tougher task.
He won three Challenger events – one on French clay and two in consecutive weeks before SW19 rolled around again, where he flirted with what proved a painful five-set defeat by Stefanos Tsitsipas. After that second-round loss, he went into detail:
“I’m sad, upset, disappointed, all those things… felt like I was in a good position, clearly had opportunities in the fourth and couldn’t get over the line. I put a lot into this year, preparing for Wimbledon, losing in round two?
I don’t find that motivating, that’s not why I put all of the work in, I want to be winning those matches and I had a good chance to go on a really good run if I got through the match today, but I didn’t. A few tournaments like that in the last few years, it’s very disappointing.
I’m very lucky to play many matches with brilliant support, great atmospheres but ultimately I want to be performing better, I don’t want to play two rounds and be on my way home or watching on TV. I want to do better if I’m competing, right now it’s not been paying off. Improving takes a lot of time and effort.”
Lendl has historically been known not to enjoy long-distance plane journeys and attributed a desire for more family time as a reason behind their maiden split almsot a decade ago, and that hasn’t changed with time either.
Despite being present at the Major tournaments, the Guardian reports they’ve spent “minimal time together” during the Brit’s training blocks this year and he hasn’t been offering much help from the sidelines during matches when present.
That in itself is not a revelation, though this quote after losing to Alex de Minaur on Oct. 30 spoke volumes for where his mind is at right now:
“I’m not really enjoying it just now in terms of how I feel on the court and how I’m playing. The last five, six months haven’t been that enjoyable, so I need to try to find some of that enjoyment back because playing a match like that… there’s not much positivity there.”
Although he was also coy about whether he’ll participate in singles competition against Serbia in the Davis Cup Finals, we’ll have to wait and see what’s next.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes via BBC [Wimbledon] and ATP [Paris]
Mo and Sports 