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Andy Murray Responds To Mauresmo’s Real Reason For Quitting
Andy Murray has responded to Amelie Mauresmo’s criticisms of him, basically saying she had a point getting upset about his constant ranting at his coaches and support crew when things didn’t go right on court.
The world no.2 used his first person column in the Parisian sports newspaper L’Equipe that will appear during the current French Open to make his confession following Mauresmo’s comments at the weekend that his temper was a prime factor in their split two weeks ago.
“In recent weeks I’ve done some good work on my attitude,” wrote Murray after being told of Mauresmo’s revelations in the same newspaper on Saturday that she viewed him as ‘complex’ and said of being in the Scot’s courtside box: “I didn’t want to be there any more.”
Before his first round match with Radek Stepanek that was halted for bad light with the Scot trailing 6-3, 6-3, 0-6, 2-4 but appearing to have the momentum in a fightback, Murray said: “It’s true, emotions overtake me sometimes on court. I am emotional; I know that.
“Sometimes I am embarrassed. You have to try to understand that, on the court, a lot of things are happening to us. The way in which you react is not necessarily linked to what you really think, on reflection.
“That’s sport. It’s tough, there’s pressure, it’s not perfect. And then, when I say what I say, just because I am speaking in the direction of my box it doesn’t mean it’s against my coach or my team. It’s very often self-criticism. I am having a go at myself.”
Mauresmo was subjected to the same shouting as the majority of her predecessors such as Mark Petchey, Brad Gilbert, Miles Maclagan and Alex Corretja. Only Ivan Lendl made it clear he would not remain in the job if he was treated in such a way.
Murray continued: “Some people say it’s positive when I don’t show my emotions, when I control them completely. Others say the opposite. It’s very difficult to say where the truth is.
“The thing that is most important, is to know whether the fact of being emotional makes me play the points afterwards badly, if that disrupts me.
“But I’m not resigning myself to this being unchangeable. I’ve been working on it for years, I am trying to be better.”
Murray was perfectly controlled when he won the recent Internazionale BNL d’Italia title in Rome, beating Novak Djokovic in the final. “You have to find the point of balance, the right amount,” he explained. “I don’t find them every day but for three weeks, I have been getting there,” he said.
“I don’t think staying completely silent is a good thing for me. I have a need to express myself on the court. And that means expressing positive emotions, too. I have always been extremely competitive who would get frustrated with himself if he was losing.
“But if I was winning, I was just as demonstrative. I don’t know exactly where that comes from. Is it just me? Is it the situation? Is it outside influences? It has been there, in me, since I was 11 or 12 years old.”
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