According to the release, Murray will work with the man who was his worst opponent while he was a professional athlete.

Andy Murray has been hired by Novak Djokovic to train him before, during, and after the Australian Open.

When Djokovic announced the partnership, he remarked,

“I am excited to have one of my greatest rivals on the same side of the net, as my coach.

” He claimed to have “shared many exceptional moments on the Australian soil”

with Murray and was eager for the season to begin and to compete with him in Australia.

The Serbian athlete also said in a video that was uploaded on X:

“We had some of the most amazing battles in our sport… It turns out that our narrative has one more chapter, even though I believed it was done.

“It is time for one of my toughest opponents to step into my corner.”

After losing in the men’s doubles at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris,

three-time Grand Slam champion Murray announced his retirement in August.

He will now work with the man who was his greatest rival while he was a professional athlete.

Murray lost four Australian Open finals to Djokovic in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016.

However, Murray defeated Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2013 and the US Open in 2012.

“I’m going to be joining Novak’s team in the off-season, helping him prepare for the Australian Open,” Murray said in a statement. ”

I’m really excited for it and looking forward to spending time on the same side of the net as Novak for a change,

helping him to achieve his goals.” No other tennis player in history has held the top spot for longer weeks than Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion.

Earlier this year, the Serbian athlete and coach Goran Ivanisevic parted ways.

He expressed his belief that having Murray on his squad will enable him to win the Australian Open for a record 11th time.

After failing to win a Grand Slam for the first time since 2017, Djokovic has fallen to seventh place in the world rankings. The dates of the Australian Open are January 12–26.

How tennis coaches and players select one another: “Trust is the most important thing.”

How does one of tennis’ greatest male players pick a new coach? Choose someone you beat to get there and who has been there with you.

The hiring of Andy Murray by Novak Djokovic for the Australian Open, at the very least,

has reignited interest in one of the sport’s most fascinating psychological relationships:

that of a tennis player and their coach.

In his search for a coach who has climbed the mountain he has chosen,

Djokovic has employed Boris Becker, Andre Agassi, and Goran Ivanisevic throughout his career.

Like Murray, Ivanisevic is a former Wimbledon champion and multiple major winner.

He needs a voice from someone he respects and who is willing to argue with him in the middle of a game—until they aren’t.

After six seasons and twelve major championships under their belts, Djokovic and Ivanisevic split up in March of this year.

Ivanisevic said they just ran out of tolerance with one another.

In the wake of the U.S. Open,

world No. 2 Iga Swiatek,

world No. 3 Coco Gauff,

world No. 6

Elena Rybakina, and

four-time Grand Slam champion

Naomi Osaka were all fired and then hired in an attempt to renew their games, work on technique, fortify their relationships,

and gain an advantage—or rather, a combination of all these factors that is specific to each player’s priorities and each coach’s style of operation.

Djokovic’s decision follows a reorganization at the top of the WTA Tour.

With athletes and their teams traveling together and working in tight quarters for almost the whole year,

that combination has the potential to win championships and spark careers, but it had better work.

In an interview with The Athletic earlier this year, Sandra Zaniewska,

the coach of world No. 18 Marta Kostyuk, stated, “I imagine that if I had a family and kids, I would not be here at all.”

Is he a sideline hype master or a technical master? A seasoned winner or a budding talent?

There are numerous choices for both coaches and players to make when selecting one another.

Selecting a coach involves a number of considerations.

Players occasionally wish to practice a technical skill, such as a shot or surface.

In order to enhance his grass-court skills, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka hired former Wimbledon champion Richard Kraijeck in 2016.

Roger Federer and Murray did the same with Jose Higueras and Alex Corretja, respectively, for clay courts.

In the early 2020s, Djokovic became one of the most feared and accurate servers in the sport by hiring Ivanisevic,

who is currently with Rybakina, to help him develop his serve and increase its fluidity.

Djokovic hired Australian Mark Woodforde, who won 11 Grand Slam doubles titles with colleague

“Woody” Mark Woodbridge, to improve his net game. Earlier in his career,

he engaged Todd Martin, a former U.S. Open finalist, to focus on his serve, but his efforts were less successful.

The primary cause of Gauff’s breakup with Brad Gilbert, with whom she shared the 2023 U.S. Open title, was technical issues.

By transforming games into contests of defense and attrition, Gilbert trained Gauff to deflect her serve and forehand weaknesses.

He would instruct her to hit her forehand with a slow, looping arc to counter attacks.

It was time for a change, not only in her game but also in the kind of coaching that would help her advance,

when opponents realized this and her serve continued failing her.

During a press conference at the WTA Tour Finals in Saudi Arabia, Gauff stated,

“I wanted someone to help me with what I wanted to see progress in, especially on the serve.”

Players frequently go back to instructors they know and trust, and JC has worked with Gauff in the past. In 2018,

Djokovic rejoined longtime coach Marian Vajda, but four years later, they broke up again. In a same vein,

Murray brought Ivan Lendl back in 2016 after he had resigned two years prior, and then again for a third stint in 2022.

Availability is an intangible that is beyond players’ control when football clubs fire and hire managers.

It can be simpler to choose a known individual than to venture into the unknown,

particularly for Djokovic, 37, who does not have much time left in his career to take a chance on something new.

Swiatek, who Sabalenka defeated as the world’s number one in October,

is seeking it from her new partnership with Wim Fissette. Fissette is one of the most well-known trainers on the WTA Tour,

having had Grand Slam success with Kim Clijsters, Angelique Kerber, and Naomi Osaka.

Over the past two weeks, officials from both teams have emphasized how their union provided an insight into the reciprocal considerations that players and coaches make when starting a partnership.

The other determining aspect in player-coach interactions is personality,

which affects not only whether or not they work but also how long they might last. Despite the increasingly commonplace mutually gushy Instagram announcements,

athletes are usually the more brutal party when breaking pairings,

but coaches occasionally make the call. World No. 5 Zheng Qinwen was working with Fissette until he made the choice to return to Osaka’s squad last year,

leaving Zheng devastated and

caught off guard. Pere Riba, who coached Zheng to an Olympic gold medal and her first Grand Slam final in 2024,

has subsequently reconnected with her. They have a peculiar dynamic where Riba makes the decisions in training while Zheng controls the sessions during a competition; they worked out a solution.