Ivan Lendl says he sees himself coaching US Open champion Andy Murray for the rest of the Scot’s career. Murray appointed eight-time Grand Slam winner Lendl as his coach in December, and has since won Olympic gold, the US Open and reached the Wimbledon final.
“As long as it works for both of us, I can see myself being with him for the rest of his career,” Lendl told BBC World Service. The 52-year-old also revealed he intends to improve Murray’s tennis. “I have a lot of plans where I would like to see Andy end up with his game,” said Lendl, who helped the 25-year-old become Britain’s first male Grand Slam singles champion in 76 years with victory in the US Open in September.
But despite Murray’s success, the 52-year-old Czech-born coach says the player is only at 20% of where he wants him to be, though he refuses to set a particular target in terms of Grand Slam victories. “I think [he can achieve] a lot more. I’m not going to say number of Grand Slams, I’m just going to say where Andy is now,” he said.
“I take ‘point A’ – when we started working – now he’s at ‘point B’, and when I envisage I would say he’s about 20% there.”
Murray has enjoyed his best year of tennis under Lendl – winning the US Open, an Olympic gold medal, an Olympic silver medal and reaching the final, semi-final and quarter-final of Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the French Open , respectively. His Olympic gold medal came with a victory over Roger Federer at Wimbledon, just a month after losing the Wimbledon final at the same venue to the same opponent. It sparked fresh debate over whether Murray could become the first male British singles Wimbledon winner since Fred Perry in 1936.
“I think that [if Andy’s career will be judged on whether he wins Wimbledon] is an inappropriate question because I think everybody knows he can,” said Lendl.
“The question is ‘is he going to win Wimbledon?’ and know he will give it a good crack many, many times – not just once, not just in 2013 or 2014. He has quite a few years left in him and he’s going to give it a crack.” However, Lendl believes nothing is guaranteed with regards to success on home turf. “As you know in sport, you cannot predict, you can only anticipate – both Andy and I would be disappointed if at the end of the day he does not win,” said Lendl.
