Murray Credits Cahill for Lendl Idea

Written by: Staff on 16th January 2012

Murray Credits Cahill for Lendl Idea

Andy Murray (L) of Great Britain and speaking to his coach Ivan Lendl during a practice session ahead of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 15 January 2012. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year, will begin on 16 January. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG |

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Andy Murray has warned that people should not expect instant results after the Scot engaged Ivan Lendl as his coach – despite going all the way to the Brisbane title in the first week of the year.

“I’m not going to get the benefits from having Ivan this week. I’m going to see it in six months, 12 months time, you know, when all the things we work on start falling into place,” said Murray.

“I mean, it’s obviously good to have someone with his experience around the slams and these situations. But in terms of the actual improvements in my game, it’s going to take a little bit longer than a week to make changes.

“I really enjoy being around him. He’s been good fun, good sense of humor. As you probably expect, he has a lot of great stories to tell. Yeah, he doesn’t hang around all the time. When we get the work done, he leaves, does his own thing. We’ve got on well so far. Hopefully that continues.”

His appointment of one of the greatest players the game has seen caught most people by surprise, especially as Lendl has never coached before. Murray explained how it came about.

“I was looking for a coach and was thinking about it during last year, but was having good results. Didn’t necessarily want to start something new in the middle of a season or right before a slam. I was also doing some work with the adidas team, with Darren Cahill. It was working well. I didn’t necessarily want to change it.

“I spoke to Darren a little bit at the end of last year and said, What’s it looking like for next year? What are your plans? He offered me the same things he did last year. He wasn’t around enough at the Grand Slams, and that was something I wanted. So chatted with him, had a few names, spoke to a few people. And Ivan was one of them.

“After speaking with him, meeting him a couple times, spent a day on the court with him. It was pretty obvious that was the guy I wanted to work with, and that was it. He is a very hard worker. I like hard work as well. I think he’s like that, as well, so far in the time we’ve spent together.”

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Topics: Cahill, Lendl, Murray