Former British tennis player Laura Robson believes Andy Murray’s family commitments would have been a top priority when he agreed to extend his coaching role with Novak Djokovic.
Murray joined Djokovic’s team last year, and the pair made their debut at the Australian Open. Murray was a constant presence in Djokovic’s box as the Serbian progressed to the semi-finals before being forced to retire due to injury.
Although Djokovic has said that Murray will continue to work with him at upcoming tournaments, Robson thinks Murray would have been hesitant to spend extended periods away from his family. However, the two-time Wimbledon champion’s love of the game will also have been a deciding factor.
“He’s (Murray) pretty busy at home. I imagine it took them a while to figure out what schedule they were going to be able to do together,” Robson said on Eurosport.
“Andy, for sure, doesn’t want to do long stints at a time away from home when he literally just retired a few months ago. I imagine that it took some effort to work out amongst themselves and also their agents, I’m sure.
“But just the positive is that he’s back and wanting to continue, because I know from seeing Andy on the courts in Australia, he was really excited at the prospect of hanging around and being together again and was just sinking his teeth into it and getting invested in the tactics.
“You could see from the side of the court how much he wanted Novak to win. So to carry it on, I think it is really cool for tennis to have that storyline ongoing.”
Having faced an unexpected defeat at the Qatar Open, Djokovic, who lost in straight sets to unseeded Italian Matteo Berrettini, has declared that his collaboration with Andy Murray will persist for an “indefinite” time, reports the Express.
“I expressed my desire to continue the collaboration with him so I am really glad he did accept,” the Serbian revealed to ATP Tour media before his match in Doha. “It’s indefinite in terms of how long we are going to work together but we agreed we are going to work most likely in the [United] States and then some clay-court tournaments and see how it goes after that.”
Following Djokovic’s withdrawal from the Australian Open, Murray delved into his experiences as a coach compared to his competitive playing days. “It’s definitely harder playing, that’s for sure,” he said.
“I felt a lot of nerves and stuff in the build-up to the matches, but when I was watching it I felt like I was able to sort of switch that off. I felt calm at the side and was sort of watching, trying to do my job.”