Andy Roddick made an enormous revelation in regards to the Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray partnership because the 2003 US Open champion shares he was instructed that the newly retired Briton rejected a number of gives from “top male and female” gamers earlier than accepting the Serb’s invitation to work with him.
After lacking the Paris Masters and ATP Finals, the document 24-time Grand Slam champion made all of the headlines on Saturday after asserting the previous two-time Wimbledon winner as his coach for the Australian Open.
To nobody’s shock, it drew main consideration and pleasure but in addition some logical questions. Whereas Murray just lately hinted that he can be open to teaching someday, nobody actually anticipated him to get into it this early. And particularly nobody anticipated to see the previous world No. 1 working with Djokovic.
However based on Roddick’s sources, the Briton was seemingly getting gives since mainly ending his profession in early August.
“I’ve heard that top players, male and female, Andy Murray has said no to many over these last four months,” the American former world No. 1 stated on the Served with Andy Roddick.
Tennis journalist Jon Wertheim, who was additionally on the podcast, stated that these near the previous three-time Grand Slam champion instructed the 37-year-old that he merely couldn’t go on the provide to work with Djokovic.
“I’ll add a little on that, but apparently, I’ve heard the same thing. This is not the first player that has reached out to Andy, and Andy’s family unit basically said, ‘You are going to regret it if you don’t do this.’ It’s also in Australia right, this isn’t like, hey we’ll do this at Wimbledon, ‘I’m going to be outside anyway,’ I mean this is flying across oceans and time zones and I was told that people very close to Andy Murray have simply said, ‘We know you too well, we know you are going to regret it if you say no to this. Go ahead and see how it goes,'” Wertheim stated.
Roddick added: “And the other people asking were on the top of the pile too. They were high, high, high-ranked men and women.”
Djokovic and Murray’s statements
Initially of the 2024 season, the Serb’s 33-match profitable streak on the Australian Open got here to an finish following a four-set defeat semifinal to Jannik Sinner – for the primary time since 2018, he misplaced a match at Melbourne Park. In the remainder of the Grand Slam 12 months, the 37-year-old did not handle to win any Majors and it was the primary season since 2017 that it occurred.
When asserting his new position, Murray particularly famous that he was introduced in to assist Djokovic “achieve his goals.”
“I’m going to be becoming a member of Novak’s workforce within the off season, serving to him to arrange for the Australian Open. I’m actually excited for it and searching ahead to spending time on the identical facet of the online as Novak for a change, serving to him to attain his objectives,” Murray said in a statement.
On the other side, Djokovic recounted their big Australian Open battles – in the past, the Serb beat the Briton in four finals at Melbourne Park.
Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic© YouTube screenshot
“I’m excited to have one in every of my biggest rivals on the identical facet of the online as my coach. Wanting ahead to the beginning of the season and competing in Australia alongside Andy, with whom I’ve shared many distinctive moments on Australian soil,” the record 10-time Australian Open champion said.
Viktor Troicki hinted something big was about to go down
“I’m glad that Novak said that he’s at 100% beginning preparations for the brand new season. We noticed one another briefly, and I even heard that one thing was brewing with a brand new coach, with a giant identify. I do not know something about that. That is the gossip I heard yesterday, I did not hear from him,” the former world No. 12 told Sport Klub.
In the same interview, Troicki highlighted that Djokovic accomplished his main goal for 2024 and backed him to return to a Slam-winning form next year.
“This 12 months, his predominant focus was on the Olympic Video games, and he confirmed that – when he actually needs one thing, he could make it occur, it was like that earlier than and in his profession,” he famous.
Will probably be fascinating to see if Murray can information Djokovic to his twenty fifth Grand Slam title of their Slam debut as a participant/coach duo.
