Andy Murray has always been a straight shooter, and that may have been one of the lead qualities that helped him coach Novak Djokovic to the semi-finals at the Australian Open last month.
The British former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings was a vocal presence in Djokovic’s coaching box, offering strategic insights that the Serbian later credited as valuable. Yet the experience wasn’t without its challenges, as Murray recently revealed on the Sporting Misadventures with Chris Hoypodcast.
“I enjoyed certain parts of it,” Murray said. “I enjoyed the matches. I liked sitting at the side watching matches from a different perspective. I enjoyed the analysis, and preparing and planning, the strategy and everything. I really liked that, but I also found it very demanding.
“I’m obviously very inexperienced as a coach, so there’s lots of things that when you’re a player, you don’t realise that coaches are thinking about and having to do. I’m a poor communicator, something I’ve always struggled with, but then when you’re part of a team and you’re kind of leading the team, it’s really important that you are communicating well with people and giving them clear direction. I think I did an okay job with that, but I found it hard, I found that very demanding.”
Despite the honour of being asked to guide the 24-time major winner, a new role for Murray proved more demanding than anticipated. The Briton’s relentless desire to gain a tactical edge, which was extremely beneficial, also carried its own set of difficulties.
“I also did a pretty bad job of [spending] way too much time in my room just watching videos of tennis and almost over analyzing matches, over preparing a little bit,” Murray said. “So I found myself getting quite tired and I did a better job towards the end of the tournament with that. I was like, look, this is too much, give yourself a break, get to the gym, go for a walk, go hit a few golf balls. It was a good experience that I learned a lot from, but I found it hard, found it demanding.”
Born a week apart in May 1987, Murray and Djokovic have shared the professional tennis circuit for much of their careers. While Djokovic holds a commanding 25-11 lead in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, Murray has had his share of success on some of the sport’s biggest stages, including in two Grand Slam finals (US Open 2012, Wimbledon 2013).
In light of this, Murray was thus asked whether he had discussed any specific weaknesses in Djokovic’s game that he used to target, in order to give the Serbian an advantage in his quest at the Australian Open last month.
“We spoke about that quite early on in the first few days when we were working with each other,” responded Murray. “It wasn’t so much this is what [he] did wrong. It was more like, this is what you do right. When I was playing against you and you were doing this, it was so hard to play against for these reasons and was more trying to emphasize the positives of when he’s playing well, this is what it looks like and this is what it feels like for the player down the other end.
“It’s always one of those things I found as a player that you never know the speed of your own shot, the speed of your ball, what impact is it having on the guy on the other end? What are they feeling? You can have that conversation obviously with your coaches, because sometimes you hit the ball with your coaches, but if I was able to hear from Novak or Fed or Nadal when I was playing against them, I hate it when you do this to me or when you’re hitting this shot, that would have been a huge, huge help to know that.
“There are certain things in coaching that I obviously have limited experience with and stuff that I clearly would have to learn and improve. But I do think it’s sort of a unique perspective that I have on Novak’s game that I’m able to make up for some of those weaknesses and flaws that I would have because I’ve competed against him in the biggest matches on the biggest stages over a 10, 12 year period. I’ve studied his game a lot, but also experienced what it was like to play against him and practice with him.”
Djokovic wasn’t the only star that Murray shared the stage with during his iconic career. Alongside the Serbian, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were also key figures who shaped Murray’s journey. The 37-year-old was asked who he would choose to coach if all three came to him at their peak, each seeking his guidance.
“Well, that’s a great question,” Murray said. “I think probably Roger, because he is able to do so much with the tennis ball, you have so many options… To be fair, Novak was really good with this as well and it’s one of the reasons why it doesn’t really matter who’s coaching those guys, providing you’re giving them clear direction, because they’re so great.
“Lots of people can come up with that, anyone who’s got a good tennis knowledge would be able to do that, but not all of their players can execute what you’re asking them to do. That was the thing for me with Novak that was amazing. In a couple of the matches, I gave him the strategy that I thought would work and would be beneficial, and the way that he was able to execute that and do exactly what’s being asked because of his technical abilities. The way that he strikes the tennis ball, the way that he moves on the court and just has no weaknesses, is [why] they’re able to execute a game plan better than anyone else because they’re so skillful.
“I think coaching Roger would have been fun because he has so much natural — don’t like that so much — he looks like it’s natural. He works extremely hard, but he just had all of the shots. So you would be able to ask him to do something and he could do it, essentially.”
