World No.3 Andy Murray has insisted that the ending of his collaboration with Amelie Mauresmo has nothing to do with gender.
Murray recently announced that he will stop working with Mauresmo after almost two years together. Despite never winning a grand slam title under the watchful eye of the former world No.1, Murray has won seven ATP titles and was a two-time runner-up at the Australian Open.
“I think it did work. I mean, for two years I think the results that we had were good.” Murray said about their time together.
“When she came on board, my results actually really picked up. The time we spent together was positive. It’s just a shame I wasn’t able to win one of the major events, because that’s what both of us wanted,” the world No.3 added.
The appointment of Mauresmo was a breakthrough for women coaches. Never before has a woman been a senior coach for one of the top players on the men’s tour. The partnership between the two started to fade this year due to Mauresmo’s traveling limitations. Mauresmo, who gave birth to her first child last year, spent only two tournaments with the British No.1 this year (Australian Open and Miami).
Speaking about the separation, Murray was eager to point out that it had nothing to do with gender. Instead he discussed similarities between his situation and that of Roger Federer’s ending of his collaboration with Stefan Edberg. Like Mauresmo, Edberg ended his work with the 17-time grand slam champion due to travel commitments.
“Roger stopped working with Stefan Edberg at the end of last year because Edberg wanted to spend more time with his family and didn’t want to spend as much time traveling. No one batted an eyelid about that.” The world No.3 pointed out.
“So in my opinion it’s nothing to do with Amélie being a woman.”
Murray may have broken ground with his appointment of Mauresmo, but has it really paved the way for more female coaches to work at the top level of men’s tennis?
One of the players to endorse the idea of more female coaches in men’s tennis is Novak Djokovic. The world No.1 was introduced to tennis by Jelena Gencic, one of the most famous female coaches in Serbian sporting history. Even now, Djokovic still attributes his success on the tour to the work he conducted with Gencic. Speaking about female coaching in Rome, the Serbian has pledged ‘to embrace’ the movement.
“I think it was — obviously it was a good move for Andy. He had success with Amelie, reaching No. 2 of the world, they had a great relationship,” Djokovic said.
“I don’t see any reason why not. I’m going to embrace that, for sure,” he added when asked if more female coaches could feature on the men’s tour.
Murray will now begin his search for a new coach. It is understood that he is hoping to conduct a coaching trial before the Wimbledon championships with a yet to be named coach. Prior to this, Murray will continue working with assistant coach Jamie Delgado.
