Andy Murray says he is prepared to be the target of Novak Djokovic’s ire during tense moments at the Australian Open, having the “unique opportunity” to coach him to make it worth it. Serbia’s 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic made the shock decision to hire Murray in November, just months after the Scot ended his playing career. In his first comments since then, former number one Murray, who has known Djokovic since he played in the juniors, said the call came out of the blue.
“I told him, ‘Look, I need to think about this and talk to my family,'” the BBC quoted Murray as saying.
“I spoke to them and after a couple of days I thought this was a unique opportunity and experience.
“I thought it would be nice to try.”
Murray is himself a three-time major winner and a five-time finalist in Australia. Both players are part of the so-called “big four”, along with Rafael Nadal, who retired last year, and Roger Federer, who left the team. sport in 2022.
Djokovic and Murray have faced each other 36 times in their careers, with the Serbian winning 25 times.
Nineteen of these clashes occurred in finals, with both players known for being vocal outside their own penalty area during tense moments.
This time the victim may be Murray.
“I know it’s not easy – it’s stressful and at times he wants to speak out to his team and his box,” Murray said.
“As long as he puts in the effort and tries his best, I’m absolutely fine with him expressing himself the way he wants.”
As Djokovic chased an 11th Australian Open title and a record 25th major, Murray made it clear he wasn’t in town for the holidays.
“Sometimes it’s very nice. But high performance shouldn’t be all about laughing, joking and messing around,” he said.
“In all the time I’ve been on tour, I haven’t seen that from one of the best players in the world.
“I’ve seen it in some of the lower-ranked players and that’s one of the reasons why they’re not there.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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