Interview: Ivan Lendl, tennis coach, on Andy Murray

As the US Open begins, something has changed. As ever, Andy Murray has settled into New York life with high hopes – and as the 2008 finalist, last year’s semi-finalist and the 2004 junior champion, he knows he can play well at Flushing Meadows. But this time everyone else, rivals included, have high hopes for the Scot, too.

Since he reached that first final, Murray has been a part of the Gang of Four at the top of the rankings. Rubbing shoulders with Messrs Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, he set himself apart from the rest of the pack. But the more clear water the top four put between themselves and everyone else, the more the finger pointed at Murray. Yes, he had accumulated the required number of ranking points to be a part of the elite but, no, he had not won a major trophy to gain full membership. But that all changed with the Olympics.

Murray has something that the other three can only dream of – a gold medal won at his home Olympics and on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, to boot. Now Murray can approach the last grand slam of the year on an equal footing with his fellow members of the elite and that could change everything. After four grand slam final losses, the most recent at Wimbledon in July, Murray has finally made his breakthrough.

For coach Ivan Lendl, watching on from the United States, it was a satisfying moment and one to which he could relate. He, too, lost his first four grand slam finals before discovering the art of winning and going on to collect eight major trophies.

“For me, it was more about the process,” Lendl said. “I didn’t feel it was any different or that my game was any different than before.

“However, having said that, it is a big help because of the way the others perceive you, not necessarily because of the way you look at yourself or how you feel, but how you’re perceived by the others. Is it worth a point in a tiebreak in the fifth set? I don’t know. Maybe.”

Certainly the sports’ pundits and household names are all lining up behind Murray – Mats Wilander and Goran Ivanisevic gave him their vote last week – but Lendl, ever cagey, is not getting carried away.

He helped his charge via telephone and text as the Olympics wore on, leaving Dani Vallverdu in charge of day-to-day practice and training sessions. Old Stone Face sat back and watched what he could on American TV.

“I watched it on tape in the evening,” he said. “I watched the finals live. He was playing the way we know Andy can. It was great to see. I really enjoyed it. I thought he played great. I thought he played really well and it was nice to see him win it.

“When I was leaving London [after Wimbledon], I spoke to Dani and Andy and we set up what Andy needed to work on. Dani is more than capable.

“Dani’s very good at this stuff. So they followed up, and practised, and then we were in touch every day – sometimes a couple of times a day with Dani and I speaking to Andy when necessary.

“You can never say you’re sure that somebody’s going to win it, but he had a great Wimbledon, great practices. All the reports Dani was giving me about practices between Wimbledon and the Olympics were great, which obviously with the history [Murray has suffered dips in form after his previous grand slam defeats] could have been a little bit of a worry – but they were great. You can never know, but all the signs were good.”

Having seen the way in which Murray managed the occasion, the atmosphere and the pressure to wallop Roger Federer in straight sets and claim Olympic gold, Lendl has proof that his message is getting through – the Scot has the game to beat anyone and by controlling his emotions and maintaining his focus on every single point, he can do it on any stage. Now he just has to do it at a grand slam.

“Olympic gold is obviously right up there with a grand slam,” Lendl said. “It’s a big win. You can say it’s more, you can say it’s less, you can say it’s equal. It’s very much up there. In many ways winning the gold is much more difficult than winning a slam, because you get a chance only once every four years. If you look at it, when Andy was 21 he wasn’t quite ready. Now he’s won it. If he didn’t win it, he would be 29 the next time and who knows? He clearly did it coming into the prime of his career. If he will still be in his prime when he’s 29, we don’t know. There are so many unknowns in this game.

“I talked to Andy after the match. I said to him: ‘You picked to win the most difficult one first, because you only get one chance every four years’. I hope he will get one more crack at it and that will be it. I have no illusions that at 33 he won’t have a realistic chance of winning gold. He will be 33, there will be new players, the game will have moved on”.

The US Open draw has pitted Murray against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals (Murray last beat him in the Wimbledon semi-finals), and Federer in the semis. And we all know what happened the last time Murray played the Swiss. But there is much work to be done before then – first in line for the Scot is Alex Bogomolov Jr. Lendl, unsurprisingly is not over-confident. But, at least with a gold medal around his neck, Murray’s self-belief should be high.

“He should be more relaxed and more comfortable,” Lendl said.

It is not exactly the enthusiastic vote of confidence Murray supporters may have been looking for but, coming from Old Stone Face himself, it was the nearest thing to effusive praise Murray was likely to get. And, on the eve of the US Open, that is not half bad.