Delhi November 28, 2024 (Punjab Khabarnama Bureau)- In what was a huge surprise to tennis fans, Novak Djokovic recently announced that former player Andy Murray would be assigned as his coach from the upcoming Australian Open next year.
Murray retired after the Paris Olympics this year, where Djokovic won gold. The Serbian split with Goran Ivanisevic in March, and has now turned to Murray in his bid for his 25th Grand Slam title.
According to Andy Roddick, Murray got plenty of offers before Djokovic, but rejected all. “I’ve heard that top players, male and female, Andy Murray has said no to many over these last four months,” he said.
Meanwhile, tennis journalist Jon Wertheim, who was also present in the podcast, said, “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.”
“And the other people asking were on the top of the pile too. They were high, high, high-ranked men and women,” Roddick added.
In a statement by Olympics.com, Djokovic welcomed Murray, and said, “We played each other since we were boys. Twenty-five years of being rivals, of pushing each other beyond our limits. We had some of the most epic battles in our sport. They called us game changers, risk takers, and history makers. I thought our story may be over. It turns out, it has one final chapter. It’s time for one of my toughest opponents to step into my corner. Welcome on board coach Andy Murray.”