One of the reasons Ivan Lendl reneged on his original commitment to stay with Andy Murray for the course of the Scot’s career was that he was weary of the travel and, particularly, he did not enjoy the aerial commuting in the US, nor the 10,000-mile slog from Miami to Melbourne for the first slam of the season.
When the separation arrived after two wonderful years, in March 2014 it seemed to leave a deeper bruise on the player than on his coach. “It was tough,” Murray said a few days after the shock. “He was a big part of my life.”
Contrast that messy divorce with the arrangement Murray has forged since then with Amélie Mauresmo. The change in mood is profound. While Lendl (as was his right) opted for the gentler attractions of Florida’s golf courses, Mauresmo plainly has made the sort of commitment that not only requires the usual sacrifices of time and hard yards but comes with a unique rider: a five-month-old baby boy called Aaron.
She took her first-born to Perth when Murray was warming up for the 2016 season, a gesture he appreciated for more than the obvious reasons. He and his wife, Kim, are expecting their own child, scheduled to arrive two weeks after the final here and Murray revelled in the experience of enjoying a baby’s presence in a working environment. As he said on Saturday, after another workout before his opening match against the German prodigy Alexander Zverev on Tuesday: “Her boy has been great. He has come to a few dinners and stuff and been really well behaved. It looks easy, I guess, when you see a baby for an hour and a half per day. She seems to be handling everything very well and it hasn’t affected her.”
The challenge for Murray is to manage parallel emotions: the anticipation of what will surely be the most joyous day of his and Kim’s life, while retaining the focus needed to be sharp and unforgiving at his workplace. He looks to be doing OK.
“I’ve never been in this position, so it’s something new for me to deal with and handle. New experiences are always good, something to learn from. But when I’m on the practise court, I’m very focused there. When I’ve been training, not distracted on that side of things. After your practises and when you’re away from the court, it’s a bit different.
“All of the things that were there before she left [are in place]: communication is very good, we are able to talk about practising, the game – and, as much as that might sound basic, it’s not always an easy thing to do, to open up to your coaches if you’re feeling really bad or feeling really nervous. Things like that are not always that easy but, with her, it is easy and that has helped a lot in the past.
“There’s the experience of being around these events, what it takes to win them. She won here and had some good runs here. She worked extremely hard, was one of the fitter women, so she pushes me in practise and training. I need that at this stage of my career so it’s important to have someone who is motivated. If she wasn’t motivated to do the job, she wouldn’t have come back to do it.
“I know now that when you are just a few weeks away from giving birth it’s not easy to be concentrated exactly on what it is that you’re doing. But for her, it’s clear that she really wants to do the job, having just given birth, that she’s wanted to come back and do it and travel and be part of the team. That gives me confidence that she believes in me and thinks that I can achieve the biggest prizes.”
One of the reasons the partnership works is synergy. They are open to exploring new strategies and tactics. Already, Murray has picked up on Mauresmo’s encouragement to take more calculated risks at the net. “Every week I’m thinking of new things to do, I’m always trying to learn new things and trying to improve.”
Murray is relaxed, happy, balanced in every way, with his priorities lined up the way he would like them to be. However, when asked if he would stick to his commitment to leave for home to be with his wife if the birth is premature – even if it meant the tournament might not have a contested final – he bristled. “My child is more important to me, and my wife is more important to me, than a tennis match.”
