Australian Open: John McEnroe tips old foe Ivan Lendl to help Andy Murray

JOHN McEnroe was surprised when Andy Murray named Ivan Lendl as his new coach but thinks his old rival may prove to be the missing ingredient the Scot needs to take his career to the next level.

World No 4 Murray has been runner-up in three grand slam finals, including at the last two Australian Opens, but has been comfortably beaten in them all, continuing Britain’s long wait for a men’s champion in the sport’s four major tournaments.

Murray enlisted the help of eight-times grand slam winner Lendl last week and the initial results looked promising with the British No 1 winning his opening tournament of the year in Brisbane on Sunday.

“I hate to give credit to Lendl but [Murray] needed to do something out of the ordinary instead of going with the predictable re-tread,” said McEnroe, who is in Australia for the first grand slam of the year.

“This is definitely something that was, to me, unexpected. I didn’t know that Lendl wanted to coach. He could bring something to the table, without a doubt.

“Lendl didn’t win a major until he was 24 and guess what? Murray is 24 right now. So that could provide something for Murray, I’m going to be paying attention to that, see how it works out.”

McEnroe, who won seven grand slam singles titles, had a fierce and unfriendly playing rivalry with Lendl, who he once described as a “scary robot”.

Murray will go into next week’s Australian Open as the fourth seed. The seedings for the first grand slam event of the year were announced yesterday, with Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki receiving top billing.

Serbian Djokovic, after his superb 2011 season that saw him become world No 1, tops the men’s side of the draw from Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Murray. Spain’s David Ferrer is seeded fifth, ahead of Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Czech Tomas Berdych, American Mardy Fish and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, with Spanish clay-court specialist Nicolas Almagro completing the top ten.

Wozniacki, who heads to Melbourne still searching for an elusive grand slam title and in danger of relinquishing her No 1 ranking to Czech Petra Kvitova, is the top women’s seed, with Kvitova second, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka third and Maria Sharapova fourth.

Last year’s Australian Open runner-up, China’s Li Na, is seeded fifth, with US Open champion and local hope Samantha Stosur sixth.

Russian Vera Zvonareva is the seventh seed, in front of Pole Agnieszka Radwanska, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli and German Andrea Petkovic.

With the seeding of players in Melbourne based solely on their places in the ATP and WTA rankings, there were no surprises in the list, but the placing of defending champion Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams could see fireworks earlier than anticipated.

Belgian Clijsters, who is still battling back to full fitness after an injury ravaged 2011, is seeded 12th, with Williams – champion at Melbourne Park in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010 – the 13th seed, meaning they could face a top-ten player as early as the last 16.