Intriuging but I can't see it happening. Lendl has no proven track record of success as a coach either.
Neil Harman Tennis Correspondent, Key Biscayne, Florida
March 28 2011 12:01AM
Ivan Lendl, one of the greatest champions in the sport’s history, is ready to make his first move into coaching and has already made tentative inquiries as to whether Andy Murray would be keen on hiring him, The Times has learnt.
Lendl witnessed Murray’s 6-1, 7-5 defeat by Alex Bogomolov Jnr in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open, in Miami, the British No 1’s fourth successive setback during which time he has lost nine consecutive sets and, for the first time, lost consecutive matches to two players outside the world’s top 100.
Never has the 23-year-old world No 5 required a greater sense of purpose, direction and inspiration. The thought that it could be provided by such a figure as Lendl, legendary for his application, work ethic and drive for perfection, means that any approach from the 51-year-old needs to be treated with the respect it merits.
It is understood that, after 12 years out of the game, Lendl’s zest for tennis has been reinvigorated by a succession of appearances on the ATP Champions Tour and in exhibition events.
Lendl, a Czech-born American citizen, believes that the time is right for him to take a player under his wing, much in the same way as he turned to Tony Roche in his early twenties, in the hope that the left-hander would put his career on the right track.
Lendl lost in the first four of his grand-slam final appearances, so he has been where Murray is now, fretting over his game and knowing he has the talent, but worried about how it may eventually fit into place.
If the pair could be drawn together — and The Times understands that a preliminary conversation has taken place, but nothing of serious consequence has yet been discussed — it would be a remarkable moment in Murray’s development. At present, he is at one of his lowest ebbs, confidence whittled away, feet not moving and his mind in a thick and apparently impenetrable mist.
I was told that Lendl’s desire to enter the world of coaching is “serious” and that it has to be under the right conditions and with someone who is prepared to work in the same way he did. Players such as this do not fall off trees.
When I asked him last year how he coped with losing his first four grand-slam finals, Lendl said: “The key was to know that I had to make changes. I was just never quite sure I was going about it the right way and you cannot be 100 per cent sure the changes will work. A lot of guys give up when they don’t get immediate results. You have to be incredibly patient.”
Lendl and Murray are nearneighbours. The Scot has an apartment on the Miami seafront and the man who won 94 singles titles, five year-ending Masters and spent 270 weeks at No 1 in the world has his Champions Academy (motto: where greatness happens) at the Boulevard Village and Tennis Club at nearby Vero Beach.
There is the question, of course, about the pair’s compatibility. Lendl has never been anything other than ferociously single-minded and could be said to have a kindred spirit in Murray, whose stubborn streak has meant him dispensing with three coaches inside five full seasons on the ATP Tour.
One of those, Brad Gilbert, was appointed on the LTA’s wage bill in 2006 and departed a year later, when the pair were exhausted by each other’s company. At present, Murray is coached on a consultancy basis by Àlex Corretja, the Spanish former world No 2, and he talked last week of his desire to spend more time in the company of Dani Vallverdu, the Venezuelan who is his best friend and hitting partner. After his shocker of a defeat by Bogomolov on Friday, he said that what was happening to his game required sorting out quickly. “It’s all to do with me and I need to change it,” Murray, who has reached the finals of three grand-slam championships, said.
“I can’t spend all the time in the gym, practise as well as I do and then go out and play like that. I don’t want to play like this for the rest of the year.”
