Lendl to Coach Andy Murray From Connecticut

Written by: Staff on 16th July 2012

Lendl to Coach Andy Murray From Connecticut

epa03299004 Andy Murray of Britain (R) and his coach Ivan Lendl (L) during a training session at Aorangi Park prior to Sunday's men's final match against Roger Federer for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 07 July 2012. EPA/JONATHAN BRADY |

Ivan Lendl, coach of Wimbledon finalist Andy Murray, has the perfect antidote to tennis disappointment. He simply heads been back to the golf course and this week will attempt to qualify for the Connecticut Open.

While Murray has remained in London, appearing on the BBC’s satirical Mock The Week television program and sitting ringside at the controversial David Haye v Derek Chisora heavyweight fight, Lendl headed back across the Atlantic for familiar pursuits.

Lendl, himself twice a beaten Wimbledon finalist, is now focusing on success at the Shuttle Meadow Country Club but the man who rarely allows his emotions to show, revealed how impressed he was by the British public’s reaction to Murray.

“I personally felt tremendous support from the public, whether it was in a restaurant in the evening or on the golf course in the morning, I was being wished the best of luck,” said 52 year-old Lendl.

“Clearly, coaching a player on home soil was something very different to anything I had experienced before. I suppose I can compare it to being with my kids when they have been competing, hoping for somebody to win, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I put myself in the position of Andy’s parents. It is not easy.

“Even though I was rooting for him in all he did, it wasn’t the same for me. I wasn’t born in Britain, I don’t live there. Andy has a British heart and I don’t, so only he can properly describe what dealing with all of that is like.”

Lendl will remain in the United States during the upcoming Olympics but will use his television to keep an eye on Murray’s progress – when golfing commitments allow. The pair will next link up for the two North American summer events on the ATP World Tour’s Masters 1000 series; first in Toronto for the Rogers Cup beginning August 6 and then a week later move on to Cincinnati for the Western and Southern Open.

Now the coach is hopeful the positive Wimbledon experience will be the catalyst for success for Murray, potentially at the upcoming U.S. Open.

“If you can cope with what he dealt with at Wimbledon, I believe it makes it easier to handle what may come his way in other places,” said Lendl who became Murray’s coach on New Year’s Eve. “If he is happy with the way things are going with me, I am happy with that also. Of course I wish his progress had been fuller and quicker, but things take time and we said the first time we met that change would not happen overnight.”

Topics: Andy Murray, British tennis news, Ivan Lendl, Post wimbledon news, Sports