Scots tennis legend Andy Murray will hold crunch talks with Novak Djokovic about his coaching future following his abrupt tournament exit.
The Serbian superstar retired in the semi-finals of the Australian Open against Alexander Zverev to the sound of boos from the crowd. A “muscle tear” sustained in the victory over Carlos Alcaraz proved too much, ending his bid for a 25th grand slam title. Djokovic will now set his sights on recovery for Wimbledon in the summer.
The Scot joined the Serb’s coaching team in November to the shock of the tennis community. But there was no agreement in place that the two 37-year-olds would continue working together after the Melbourne tournament. Following Djokovic’s exit Murray revealed: “Me and Novak agreed that after the tournament we would speak. We’ll do that.”
On the match itself, he added: “I think he was always going to go out there and give it a good shot. He obviously didn’t train the last couple of days. He practised right before the match and was feeling good enough to give it a go. It was an unfortunate way to finish.”
In his post match press conference, Novak Djokovic added: “I’ll definitely have a chat with Andy and thank him for being here with me. You know, give him my feedback, which is, of course, positive, and see how he feels and we make the next step. We are still hot headed and disappointed, so it’s kind of hard to switch the page and start talking about what the next steps are. I think we both need to cool off a little bit and then we’ll have a chat.”