Andy Murray admits it feels ‘a little bit embarrassing’ to receive credit for coaching Novak Djokovic following the Serb’s exit at the Australian Open.
After suffering a muscle tear in his thrilling quarter-final win over Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic was forced to withdraw due to injury at the end of the first set of his semi-final against Alexander Zverev on Friday.
Murray teamed up with Djokovic for the first time at the Australian Open but the Scot is keen to point out that his former rival has always had ‘incredible’ support from his team throughout his career.
‘I feel like they’ve been a great team,’ Murray told PA.
‘At times it feels a little bit embarrassing that, because of my relationship with Novak, how much people talk about that, or when there’s a good result or a good performance that it’s because I’ve helped him.
‘I’m fully aware that the team that is with him has done an incredible job over many, many years to allow him to still be competing at this level at the age that he’s at.
‘They’ve all been really, really helpful to me. They really welcomed me into the team. It’s been great to be a part of. I got to witness some amazing tennis, and one of the best matches that I’ve seen live against Alcaraz.
‘And it’s a steep learning curve for me as well. Obviously there’s a lot of things that as a player, things are different when you’re coaching, there’s a lot more that you need to help with in terms of communication around the team.
‘You’re not just thinking about yourself like you are when you’re a player. I’ve certainly learned a lot but there’s a lot more still for me to learn, that’s for sure.’
Murray also felt Djokovic, who has won the Australian Open 10 times during his career, was ‘very close to something very special’ before he was forced to withdraw against Zverev.
‘I think he was always going to go out there and give it a good shot,’ Murray said.
‘He obviously didn’t train the last couple of days. He practised right before the match and was feeling good enough to give it a go.
‘It was an unfortunate way to finish. The match that he played against Alcaraz was some incredible tennis, amazing to watch from the side from that close, it was an amazing performance. He’d been getting gradually better as the tournament was progressing I think.
‘It’s hard. When you get to that stage of the tournament, you feel like you’re getting very close to something very special, and it’s unfortunate if the body’s not responding in the way that you would would like.
‘With Novak, there’s always hope because of how great a player he is and he has found ways out of difficult situations before. It just wasn’t to be this time.’
Asked if his partnership with Djokovic will continue beyond the Australian Open, Murray said: ‘Me and Novak agreed that after the tournament we would speak. We’ll do that.’
Djokovic was also tight-lipped over whether Murray would remain part of his team: ‘I don’t know. We both were disappointed with what just happened, so we didn’t talk about future steps, we are so fresh off the court.
‘I will definitely have a chat with Andy and thank him for being here with me and give him my feedback which is, of course, positive and see how he feels and we make the next step.
‘We are still hot-headed and disappointed so it’s kind of hard to switch the page and start talking about what the next steps are. I think we both need to cool off a little bit and have a chat.’
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