Andy Murray has revealed he would have chosen to coach Roger Federer ahead of Novak Djokovic.
The Scot accepted an invitation from the Serb to work together at last month’s Australian Open – and admitted he spent too much time “over analysing matches”.
The 24-time Grand Slam winner was forced to pull out of his semi-final with Alexander Zverev with a hamstring injury and the two tennis superstars have yet to confirm if the working relationship will continue.
Federer, the winner of 20 Grand Slams, and Rafael Nadal, who claimed 22 have both now retired after dominating tennis for a decade with Djokovic.
And asked which member of the Big Three he would have picked to coach, Murray said: “I think probably Roger because he is able to do so much with the tennis ball. He had so many options that really to be fair Novak was really good with this as well.”
Djokovic plans to return to action at next week’s Qatar Masters before playing in the American hardcourt swing in Indian Wells and Miami.
Speaking to the Sporting Misadventures podcast with Chris Hoy, Murray opened up on working with his fellow 37-year-old.
“I enjoyed certain parts of it,” he said. “I enjoyed the matches. I enjoyed sitting at the side watching matches from a different perspective. I enjoyed the analysis and preparing, planning, the strategy and everything. I really liked that. I also found it very demanding.
“I’m obviously very inexperienced as a coach so there’s lots of things when you’re a player you don’t realise that all coaches are thinking about and having to do. I’m a poor communicator, it’s something I’ve always struggled with but then when you’re part of a team and you’re leading the team it’s really important that you’re communicating well with people and giving them clear direction.
“So I think I did an ok job with that but I found that hard, very demanding. I also did a pretty bad job. I spent way too much time in my room watching videos of tennis and almost like over analysing matches, like over-preparing a little bit so I found myself getting quite tired.
“I did a better job towards the end of the tournament with that, like this is too much. ‘Give yourself a break, get to the gym, go for a walk, go and hit a few golf balls’. It was a good experience, I learned a lot from it. I found it hard, I found it demanding.”
Djokovic had a 25-11 winning record against Murray, including all four Australian Open finals they played.
“It wasn’t so much this is what you did wrong, it was more like this is what you do right,” said the Scot. “When I was playing against you, you were doing this, it was so hard to play against for these reasons. I was more like trying to emphasise the positives of when he’s playing well, this is what it looks like and this is what it feels like for the player down the other end.
“As a player you never know the speed of your own shot, the speed of your ball, what impact it’s having on the guy down the other end, what are they feeling. If I was able to hear from Novak or Federer or Nadal when I was playing against them I hate it when you do this to me or when you hit this shot, that would have been a huge, huge help to me to know that.
“I do think it’s a unique perspective I have on Novak’s game I’m able to make up for some of those weaknesses and flaws I have because I’ve competed against him in the biggest matches on the biggest stages over a 10-12 year period. I’ve studied his game a lot but also experienced what It’s like to play against him. We had those conversations. Hopefully it was beneficial for him. I know if I was a player I would have found that helpful.”
