TENNIS Bits & Pieces – Murray continues his search for a coach. Nole Djokovic to become a father. Greg Rusedski will coach Kyle Edmund. Tel Aviv will replace the ATP in St. Petersburg and who is playing where this week. Joshua Bosco
Murray looking for a coach
British No.1 Andy Murray, coach-less since his split with Ivan Lendl at the Sony Open in March, is said to have a short-list of seven or eight potential candidates for the job.
According to the BBC Murray would have liked to have a new coach prior to the French Open, but due to the issues concerning the appointment of a new trainer (talks, contracts, finances) he’d be very happy to start working with someone at least before his Wimbledon defence starts.
Some would-be candidates for the job are Larry Stefanki (he’s worked with Andy Roddick and Fernando Gonzalez), Tim Henman (but he looks quite happy with his work at the All England Club) and Darren Cahill (who is a tough man to convince, having turned down an offer from Roger Federer in 2009 and now has a well-paid job with ESPN).
After a busy week which saw him being granted an honorary degree from Stirling University and the Freedom of the city, Murray is now in Valencia where he’s training ahead of his return to the court at the Madrid Masters.
Daddy Djokovic
On Thursday World No.2 Novak Djokovic took to Twitter to announce that his long-time girlfriend Jelena Ristic is expecting their first child.
The announcement came as the couple were in Greece, where Djokovic is recuperating from the wrist injury he suffered while playing in Monte Carlo. The player is confident he’ll be fit for the Madrid Masters, which start on 5th May.
Who’s playing where
The ATP moves to Munich this week for the BMW Open, where defending champion and No.2 seed Tommy Haas will try and defend his title against top seed Fabio Fognini and other Top 50 players like Mikhail Youzhny, Gael Monfils, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Andreas Seppi. German players Dustin Brown, Peter Gojowczyk and Alexander Zverev have received wildcards.
Other Top 50 players including Tomas Berdych, Milos Raonic, Marcel Granollers and Dmitry Tursunov will head to Oeiras for the Portugal Open, a combined event, where last year’s winner Stan Wawrinka has decided not to defend his title.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won’t be defending her title either as she is one of the nine women to have withdrawn before the start of the tournament. Carla Suarez Navarro (who retired from her quarterfinal match in Stuttgart on Friday) is the top seed and she will play along with Eugenie Bouchard, Samantha Stosur, Roberta Vinci and Lucie Safarova.
Greg Rusedski will replace Colin Beecher coaching Britain’s highest ranked teenager Kyle Edmund.
On Friday Edmund, currently ranked No.272 in the world, lost to Simone Bolelli in the quarterfinals at the Vercelli Challenger.
He has five Futures titles to his name and won his first ATP tour level match in Eastbourne last year when he defeated Kenny De Schepper in straight sets.
St Petersburg moves to Israel
Early last week the ATP finally gave its approval to relocate the St Petersburg Open, usually held the week after the Davis Cup semi-finals in September, in Israel.
Starting from this year the tournament will take place at the Israel Tennis Centre in Ramat HaSharon, situated in the district of Tel Aviv. The tournament, which will keep its ATP World Tour 250 status, will be the first held in Israel since 1996.
“After 19 memorable years in St Petersburg, the time has come for us to take the tournament in a new direction. We are very excited about the opportunities that lie in Tel Aviv and look forward to holding a successful event in September” said Ruslan Linkov, the tournament representative.
