Andy Murray was just finishing off yet another round of golf when he told his playing partner he ‘could not think of anything worse’ than becoming a tennis coach – half an hour later the call came from Novak Djokovic which changed his mind.
The Scot was speaking for the first time here in Melbourne about the genesis of the most talked-about coaching partnership in tennis history.
‘Novak had messaged me, just wanting to chat. It was just before Shanghai (at the end of September) and we’d exchanged messages and missed calls and stuff,’ said the 38-year-old, fresh off the court for Djokovic’s latest Australian Open practice session.
‘Then I was playing golf and I was on the 17th hole and the guy I was playing with said to me, “Do you know what’s next?”. I was like, “No, not really”. He said “Do you have any plans to do any coaching?” And I said, “Honestly, I can’t think of anything worse to do right now”.
‘Then 30 minutes later, I was in the car, I called Novak and he asked if I would be interested in helping, which I obviously wasn’t expecting. I said to him, “Look, I need to think about it and talk to my family”.’
Murray was less than four months into retirement, settling into full-time family life and sliding into full-on golf addiction.
Andy Murray is coaching Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, which gets underway on Sunday
The pair were rivals throughout their playing careers before Murray retired last year
Murray revealed his wife Kim (right) has been ‘very supportive’ of his decision to coach Djokovic
But after talking things through with his wife Kim and their four children he decided an opportunity to work with his former nemesis and 24-time Grand Slam champion was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
‘I spoke to them and after a couple of days, I thought it was a pretty unique opportunity and experience,’ said Murray.
‘I thought it would be a good idea to try it together, spend some time in the off-season through Australia and see how it goes for both of us, because it’s a little bit different. It’s not the usual kind of set-up. So it made sense to trial it and see if it works. And then we said we’d make a more definitive decision after the tournament.’
The obvious question was how Kim reacted to the prospect of Murray returning to work in the sport so soon after kicking the habit.
‘My wife was very supportive of it,’ he said. ‘I was actually going to be in Australia anyway for a few days during the tournament. She was surprised, obviously, that he’d asked me, but she was really supportive. Maybe if it was a younger player, where it was maybe long term, you might be looking at five, six years potentially… I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case with Novak, but you never know if he’s doing well!’
On Thursday Djokovic was placed in the same chunk of the Australian Open draw as Carlos Alcaraz. If the 38-year-old is to win an 11th title here then coach Murray will potentially have to guide him past Alcaraz in the quarters, world No2 Alexander Zverev in the semis and Jannik Sinner in the final.
