Andy Murray’s coach, Amelie Mauresmo, has admitted she is undecided as to whether or not she’ll be with the Scotsman at Wimbledon this summer due to the upcoming birth of her first child. The Frenchwoman is due to give birth in August and will wait until the last minute before taking the decision to attend the All England Club in June. Murray, though, has ensured he has a back-up plan if Mauresmo is unable to join him at SW19. When it became clear the 35-year-old might miss part of the summer schedule, Murray added former world number-four Jonas Bjorkman to his coaching staff and the Swede would fill in if Mauresmo was absent.
Bjorkman is due to work with the two-time grand slam winner until the end of the hard court season, with September’s US Open set to be his final event working alongside Murray. However, there is the potential for the relationship to go beyond this year. The Swedish coach has had a positive impact on the Scotsman’s season, sharing the role with Mauresmo, who has led Murray’s coaching team since last June on a deal that sees her work with the Olympic gold medal winner for 25 weeks of the year. Despite coming in for some real criticism since replacing Ivan Lendl as Murray’s head coach, the Scottish star has remained loyal to Mauresmo and his results have really justified his loyalty.
After kicking off the year by reaching the final of the Australian Open for the fourth time in his career, Murray has picked up two promising tournament victories. On the back of a disappointing defeat in the final of the Miami Masters to Novak Djokovic, the Scotsman won his 32nd ATP Tour title at the BMW Open before lifting the Madrid Open for the first time in his career after a sensational straight sets victory over Rafael Nadal. One of the in-form players heading into the French Open, the 2013 Wimbledon champion at the time of writing has odds of 7/2 to again win the tournament. He will be helped by the partisan British public, who will turn up in their droves to cheer their man on.
Following an injury-hit 2014, this year has been a much more productive season for Murray. The Scotsman entered the clay-court season at a busy time in his life, with Murray fitting in a wedding to long-term partner Kim Sears as well as producing a string of impressive performances to get himself back into the upper echelons of the rankings. The packed schedule did force Murray to withdraw from the Italian Open at the third round stage citing fatigue, although that decision could end up helping him get through what will be a gruelling few months. While Murray has always maintained the support he receives at Wimbledon gives him a boost, it comes with a huge amount of pressure and the Scotsman knows he will be under an intense level of scrutiny from the moment he steps foot through the doors of the All England Club.
Murray finally ended Britain’s long wait for a Wimbledon champion in 2013 when he beat Djokovic in the final to win the title less than a year after beating the same opponent in the final of the US Open to end his long wait for lift a grand slam trophy. Last year’s defeat to Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals came as something of a shock, especially the ease in which the Bulgarian saw off the defending champion, and Murray will start this year’s event with plenty of motivation to right the wrongs from 12 months ago. But with Djokovic looking virtually unbeatable at times and Roger Federer still more than capable of producing magic on grass, the Scotsman will have his work cut out to repeat his exploits from 2013.
