London - Tennis champions are united in believing Andy Murray has made a smart move bringing back Ivan Lendl, with Pat Cash insisting the ‘very blunt’ Czech is just what the world No 2 needs.
Lendl is due to be in Murray’s box for the first time in more than two years when the Scot makes his bow at the Aegon Championships on Tuesday - provided there is an improvement in the weather, which wrecked most of Monday’s programme at Queen’s Club.
Former Wimbledon champion Cash believes Murray has been honest enough to realise that he requires extra assistance to overcome the one player currently better than him, Novak Djokovic.
‘It’s a very good move for Andy to look himself in the mirror and say “ok, where can I improve?”,’ said Cash, a Eurosport analyst. ‘Ivan is not tactful, he’s a bit like me - very blunt and straight to the point. He’ll say, “this is your problem Andy and I can help you fix it” and sometimes you need to hear that.
‘I’ve talked to Ivan a bit about what happened in the past and I think he indicated there was a little bit of a communication problem.
‘Ivan is strong-headed and I think they saw things slightly differently. Maybe Andy said “Ok I realise that Ivan was right”. That’s very mature.’
It was notable in Murray’s announcement on Sunday that he said Lendl, prior to accepting the offer, rang members of his team to check what kind of frame of mind the 29-year-old Scot was in these days.
Cash added: ‘Andy’s got better volleys than Novak, he’s probably got a better touch, so why is Novak consistently beating him? He’s got to come up with some answers.’
Greg Rusedski described their reuniting as a ‘no-brainer’, saying: ‘Maybe it will give Andy the extra percentage point of improvement he needs.
‘I don’t think Ivan was going to come back unless he saw that Andy can win majors again. Tactically he is brilliant and there’s the authority factor. Andy is playing great already, and I think he has a good chance of beating Djokovic at Wimbledon.’
Richard Krajicek, All England Club champion 20 years ago and the latest member of the high profile coaches club after teaming up with Stan Wawrinka, believes it could be the difference between winning and coming second at SW19.
‘Andy was so close at the French,’ he said. ‘Maybe Lendl, just having him there, even if he would not say anything for the next couple of weeks, maybe that’s the last piece of the jigsaw.’
Krajicek said he might suggest Wawrinka spends his off days during Wimbledon hitting on hard courts, as he himself did in 1996.
Daily Mail