Andy Murray reveals why coach had to go

Published on Thursday 29 July 2010 18:31

ANDY Murray is hoping the appointment of a new coach can help him make a major breakthrough after revealing a difference of opinion was behind this week's split with Miles Maclagan.

The world No 4 announced the end of his two-and-a-half years with Maclagan on Tuesday.

It is believed the former Great Britain Davis Cup player was unhappy with the involvement of Alex Corretja as a part-time coaching consultant.

But Murray considers the Spaniard a valuable part of his team and it was Maclagan who ended up leaving his post.

Murray said: "It obviously was a hard decision and one that wasn't the nicest thing to have to take. It wasn't that tough to make up my mind because we were quite far apart in what we thought. Between the three of us, we obviously had different ideas and different ways of seeing things - what I felt was beneficial to me and what Miles and Alex felt was beneficial to me."

The timing is not ideal, with Murray preparing for the American hard-court stretch leading up to the US Open, which he considers his best chance of Grand Slam success.

The Scot changed his plans, cutting short his training block in Miami and accepting a wild card into the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles this week.

Murray opens his campaign in the early hours of this morning with a second-round clash against US qualifier Tim Smyczek, his first match since his Wimbledon semi-final defeat by Rafael Nadal.

It has been a strange season for the top British player, who began the year by reaching his second grand slam final at the Australian Open before a slump that continued all the way until Wimbledon.

Murray's run at the All England Club was a welcome turnaround in form, but the straight-sets loss to Nadal in a match in which he did not play at all badly would have given him plenty of food for thought.

The 23-year-old is desperate to break his major duck and is hopeful a change of coach can help him get closer to world No 1 Nadal and 16-time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

He continued: "The last few years have gone very, very well, but I want to try and get to number one in the world and try to win grand slams.

"I don't think I need to make huge changes in my game: I just need to become a better player all around. I had good results against Federer. I've beaten Nadal a couple of times in Slams.

"I think it is easy to start over-thinking and over-analysing things. I don't think there is a problem in my game. I need to get better.

"That is something that hasn't happened the last four or five months, something that hopefully by getting a new coach and a new coaching team in place that will help me do that and achieve my goals."

Australian Darren Cahill, who is a former coach of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, has already been linked with the post as Murray searches for the fourth coach of his professional career after previously working with Mark Petchey and Brad Gilbert.

He should begin life post- Maclagan with a win against world No 192 Smyczek, although the 22-year-old has already claimed four impressive wins in Los Angeles and the Scot is taking nothing for granted.

"He is playing some of the best tennis of his career," said Murray. "He is very quick and doesn't make too many mistakes. He is going to make it difficult for me."